STEAM ACTION CARPET Cleaner expands to meet growth

The expansion will include an employee training room and a space for on-site cleaning of area rugs.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Steam Action Carpet is doubling the size of its headquarters at 493 Bev Road to keep up with a steady growth in sales and customer totals.
Construction, scheduled for completion by year's end, will give the Boardman business more warehouse and office space, a training room, a meeting room, and new space for on-site cleaning of area rugs.
Owner Bob Goodrich reported sales have increased annually since he left a 13-year job with another carpet cleaning company to found his own business in 1994.
Starting with a single truck and two employees, Steam Action now has six trucks and 15 employees serving customers in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties as well as Lawrence, Mercer and Beaver counties in Pennsylvania.
The company's residential and commercial customer roster totals 8,700, nearly triple the 3,000 listed two years ago.
Sales have slowed some in the past year, Goodrich said, but the expansion is designed to prepare the company for projected, continued growth and improvement over the next five years.
Assuring satisfaction
Goodrich said he uses water softeners and heated water for cleaning in a method that meets carpet manufacturers' warranty recommendations.
Employees also call every customer two days after a job is done to make sure they're satisfied, and if they're not, the technicians return to make the necessary adjustments.
Besides regular upholstery and carpet cleaning, Steam Action does warranty-related cleaning and inspections for DuPont, 3M and Shaw carpets, offers fire and flood damage restoration, ceramic tile cleaning and carpet repair.
Goodrich considered adding residential heating duct cleaning, a service commonly performed by carpet cleaning companies in other states, but decided not to diversify further.
Trained technicians
The carpet cleaning industry is largely unregulated, but Steam Action requires all its technicians to be trained, tested and certified by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, a Vancouver, Wash.-based agency.
"We take carpet cleaning very, very seriously," he said. "Having our people certified means that we volunteer to follow the industry standards."
Employees have had to travel to Pittsburgh for training and testing in carpet cleaning, fire damage and water damage repair, upholstery cleaning and carpet repair. Once its training room is complete the company will be able to offer employee training in-house.
vinarsky@vindy.com