Q, and A. with Dusty

Can you help stop this scam?

Admin — Thu, 5 Aug 2010 11:19:11

Hey all

The ol rug cleaning scam is going stronger then ever, even reports of it showing up in England, Canada and beyond.

Can you help stop this scam? I just blogged about how it works and would love to get your ideas on how to stop the plaque.

Click on over and put in your 2 cents!
http://rugbadger.com/blog/news/area-rug-cleaning-scams/comment-page-1/#comment-218

Stephen "Dusty" Roberts
Here to help you get more out of rugs, and stop rug cleaning scams (with your help)
http://www.rugbadger.com
866 885 7847

Rug Labels

agicarpets — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:18:12

What does everyone use for labelling their rugs?

I am looking at Tyvak which comes in various versions - I would assume flexible or soft would be the most suitable for our application.
Also how do you attach the labels to the rugs - glue, staple or sew?
If glueing - what sort of glue?

we have a winner!

dusty — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:13:05

We have an I-pad winner

Mr David Sweeny of Sweeny Bros. in Bloomingdale IL.

A big congrats!

Thank you David and for everyone else for the great stories, testimonials and response. We were overwhelmed with so many entries from both RugBadger owners and folks that are planning to own one soon! We had to narrow it down to 34 then I had my boys do a paper airplane contest to see which one flew better!

Here is Davids story
******************************************************************************************************************
In 1953, Maurice Sweeney Senior started a small family business selling and installing flooring with his brothers. Sticking to his strict upbringing of respect for others, Maurice taught his children to treat every customer as family. Maurice passed away in 1969, but his sons continued his legacy and this year, Sweeney Bros. celebrated its 57th anniversary. Over that time we have prided ourselves with delivering the highest quality flooring products with uncompromising customer service. Our business has been built on repeat and referrals that have been earned one installation or rug sale at a time. However, when you deliver such quality products and craftsmanship, its not uncommon to go 15 or 20 years without seeing a customer again. Yet when we were seeing customers at shorter intervals, it wasn’t always a happy reunion. In many cases, our customers suffered from the lack of quality floor care in our area or were simply disappointed in the lack of performance because they had not had not performed proper care. As a family business we struggled with the idea of offering floor care, but we lacked additional family members and at the risk of stretching our current employees to thin, it was a business decision that would have to wait. In 2005, the third generation joined the family business giving us the needed man power to finally provide a full service flooring center. We could now start to offer our customers one stop shopping from flooring sales, installation and care products to professional cleaning solutions. When we began building the cleaning side of the business we wanted to maintain the same commitment to quality and service. We knew we had to have the best equipment for every aspect of our cleaning program. We wanted to service any flooring that we sold. With help from several industry friends, we were able to begin our carpet, stone and tile program fairly quickly using truck-mounted equipment and making sure we were well educated through the IICRC. However, as downstate Illinois’ largest area rug dealer, we knew rug cleaning would be one of the most important services we could offer. While we were doing a couple of rugs a week, using truck mounted extraction at first, we knew we could not be getting the rugs their absolute cleanest with surface cleaning methods. Yet, we simply could not afford to invest in a full wash plant like some of our other industry friends had shown us. Many of these plants utilized older Moore Machines and very large dusting machines that were simply not available anymore. So here was our dilemma. While we didn’t have the volume to afford older full production machines, we still wanted to offer the absolute best cleaning possible for our customers’ valuable investments. Around that time there was a buzz starting to circulate the industry about a young man from Canada who offered high quality rug cleaning equipment that was affordable and best of all space saving. It gave smaller rug cleaning plants the equipment to provide outstanding dry soil removal in a space no larger than a single parking space. That man is Stephen “Dusty” Roberts, and the name that has become known around the world for quality rug cleaning is the Rug Badger. If Dusty had sold us only the Rug Badger we would have been miles ahead of anyone in our area for rug cleaning simply because we could not get the damaging dry sediment out of the rugs that prematurely wears them out, a critical step that many cleaners unfortunately overlook all too often. However, Dusty had created the ultimate rug cleaning special, by not just offering a rug badger at an amazing price, but packaging the badger with a full rug tower, rug finisher, two educational scholarships as well as the best rug cleaning book in the industry. For a very affordable price, we were able kick our rug cleaning business into high gear. Last year we were able to capitalize on both rug cleaning scholarships and earned the designation of Certified Master Rug Cleaner. We now offer the absolute best rug care to our customers. From full immersion hand washing, to delicate low moisture procedures, every rug that passes through our shop benefits from the Rug Badger or the other Rug Badger Equipment. Dusty’s equipment and commitment to excellence has made us the go-to rug cleaning experts in our area and have allowed us to continue our commitment of quality and service to our customers. We have the confidence, training and equipment to make our rug cleaning service truly successful. Perhaps the best part of all of this after the profits are made and bills are paid, the most satisfying moment is when you return a treasured heirloom rug to a customer, unroll it before them and they get tears because the rug looks as new as the first day they enjoyed it. Each rug has a history, and as the rug cleaning experts, we are blessed with the opportunity to bring that history back to life!

Thank you Rug Badger and Dusty Roberts, for the overwhelming support you have offered our company and our customers. I can’t wait to see what the next 60 years has to offer our company.

WoolSafe VS NOT WoolSafe!

Admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:52:18

WoolSafe VS not WoolSafe

Ruth Travis, Woolsafe North America director send me this pic today showing how a non WoolSafe cleaner will cause bleed damage!

Pet Urine Odor

Jay Jetty — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:37:39

I have an area rug with a severe odor problem.

The rug is not going to bleed, so I am considering giving it a bacteria bath.

I have cleaned and applied an anti microbial, cleaned again and applied a enzyme/bacteria spray, let it sit over night. But had a problem with salt and browning.

I acid rinsed the back and the front, but still have an odor issue.

Any suggestions? am I on the right path with a bacteria bath?

Thanks
Jay
Carpet Cleaning Las Vegas

BUSINESS INSURANCE

terrywetzel — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:21:00

What kind of insurance does this type of business need? What insurance companies insure rugs in your possession? I am having trouble finding an insurance co. that wants to cover oriental rugs>

Needlepoint Rug

MrBe — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 08:43:41

Hi Guys, can anyone give me some tips on how to clean a needlepoint rug and should these be charged at a premium

Thanks

Brendon
Legacy Oriental Rug Cleaners
http://www.orientalrugcleaners.us

Rug and Carpet Cleaning Invoices

Wayne Whipple — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:19:27

Hello Everyone Out There,

I originally started up a my carpet cleaning business about 18 months ago, and have started to clean more and more rugs lately. I am curious as to what type of sales invoices other successful cleaning companies are using. I was hoping to put together a combo type invoice where it could be used on carpet cleaning jobs as well as rug cleaning jobs. If anyone would like to share any ideas or samples it would be of great help.

Thank You,

Wayne Whipple of Sunny Southern California

Paging Dr Kildare, I had a problem........

Shorty Down Under — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:12:47

Dursty, the problem has been resolved.

Sort of.

I think.

For those that don't know, I had a problem.

(There's an opening for a bright young lad like Randy )

I was unable to post anything on the forum,  whoo hoo, bet that made some smile.

Anyhow, as I normally do things arseabout,  , or back to front, I decided to try a few things.

First though, the problem was that I could not type any words into the "Message Subject" box.

I can type into the "Type your message here" box, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this now.

If I've stumbled upon the cure, then you can see this.

Anyhow, after I put in all this verbal garbage, I still can't type into the "Message Subject".

I curse the cursor 'cos it don't show up where it's 'posed to be, ie; in the Message Subject" box.

So what I do is select "Post", and the minnie cop inside my pc tells me that I haven't selected a "Message Subject"

Oliver Sudden raises his ugly head and lo and behold, I am then able to enter what the subject will be.

And post it.

Which I hope I can do.

If you're reading this, I guess it musta worked.

Unlike me.

I'se goin' to brekki down at the club.

Ooroo.

mystery stains?

Admin — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 12:02:10

Have you ever cleaned an area rug and then had stains appear that were not there when you took the rug in?

Rug survey

Wayne Whipple — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 19:29:46

Dusty,

I watched your DVD on How You Can Make $3-$7 sq ft Caring For Oriental Rugs. Great DVD jamed packed with killer ideas.
I was wondering if you could send me a copy of the survey you mentioned. If you could that would be great. I have an idea of not only using it for area rugs but also in my carpet cleaning business.

Thank you
Wayne Whipple
Carpet Care Plus in Sunny Southern Californa

Latex for backing rugs

MrBe — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:57:56

Just thought I'd share this product with you.
I have just used a product from Taylor Adhesives called 710 Kwik Seam it did an execellent job on re-latexing the back of a tufted rug, great adhesion, low odor quick drying, great price I paid $17 for 2 quarts it did a 20 sqft rug with 1/2 quart over.
If you go to Taylor adhesives website you will find a list of distributors.

Brendon
http://www.legacycarpetcare.com
http://www.orientalrugcleaners.us

Trouble attaching pics to message

MrBe — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:31:56

I am having trouble attaching a pic file to the message. I go to browse then select file then attach but nothing seems to post and I can't preview before posting. The Remaining Attachment Space: reads 0 KB
Help please.

Brendon

Curled Rug Edges

MrBe — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:29:24

I have just cleaned (full immersion) a 9'8" x 13'6" persian rug thin type pile and its curled inwards during drying. Any suggestions on how to flatten this out?

Thanks for any help
Brendon
Legacy Oriental Rug Cleaners
http://www.orientalrugcleaners.us

Dusting with Compressed Air

agicarpets — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 01:45:32

With the trend these days for shag pile rugs, and the associated problems with removing the crud from them, does anyone use compressed air for dusting?

I find that badgering and vacuuming simply does not remove enough of the crap from these dirt bags.

If so, what size compressor and air flow rates are required to do the job properly?

Master rug cleaner course.

colinfitch — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:07:51

Hi Dusty,

Can you confirm that the course in Cornwall[England is in february and not as you advertise in may]

regards

colin

p.s. a happy new year to you all on the other side of the pond