Randy's Carpet Care

Serving West Michigan Since 1980

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Sunny Testimonials!

Here’s what folks are saying about West Michigan’s Randy’s Carpet Care this summer:

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5 ways to know the difference between good carpet cleaning and bad

by Jeremy Strickland

So, you’ve got dirty carpet. The (right and good) decision has been made to hire a professional carpet cleaning service, and you’ve followed my advice (click the link for article or see the infographic below) to find a company. Now you’re on the phone with them. What do you ask to ensure that you get the best possible results?

Do you perform hot water extraction? Hot water extraction (AKA steam cleaning) is widely accepted by top industry professionals as the most effective method for cleaning carpet. Much like when you do laundry, wash your dishes, or even your hair, hot water extraction involves soap (chemical) and hot water. Some companies proclaim the wonders of their “dry cleaning” method, but can you imagine not using soap and water to clean your dishes?

Do you pre-treat the carpet and then rinse all of your chemicals out? Chemical and soap residues create dirt traps, therefore all chemical should be rinsed thoroughly. Some carpet cleaning companies run their cleaning solution directly through their carpet cleaning wands. This is a big no no. Only hot water should be ran through the wand.

Do you charge by the square foot or by the room? The fairest pricing is by the square foot. When you are charged room by room, you’re paying the same price for the small rooms that you are for the large ones. You also need to watch out for square footage maximums used by companies who charge by the room. Typically, if a room is greater than 300 or so square feet, it will be considered two rooms.

What precautions do you take to protect my home? Door blocks should be used to keep the elements out and the dog in. Walk-off mats should be used by the technician to clean their feet before they enter your home. Runners and corner guards should be used to protect hardwood floors and corners. Foam blocks and/or foil tabs should be used to protect the carpet from any furniture that has been moved during the cleaning. These actions attest to the fact that not only is your technician a professional, they care about your home.

Is your work guaranteed? Any reputable company will stand by their promise of quality service and return to your home to clean again if the job was not performed to your standards.

The difference between good and bad carpet cleaning service comes down to process, customer service, and the result. While the final result may seem like the most important piece of the puzzle, it is really all about the process, and that process should include taking the time show you that your technician cares about and respects your carpet, your home, and you.

Randy’s Carpet Care has been providing award winning service for forty years and employs a time-tested process as well as well-trained professionals. If you’re in West Michigan, call us @ [phone] or visit www.randyscarpetcare.com for more information.

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It's a major award! However, as nice as it is to have won "Best of the Best" for the last sixteen years, we're even more delighted to receive such wonderful comment cards from our loyal customers every day. Check out the board in the background; those glowing comment cards are from the last 30 days! #professional #carpetcleaning #technicians #rockstars #winner #winning #bestofthebest #bestofwestmichigan #award (at Randy's Carpet Care) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxzp-tHAd_t/?igshid=717cp5qc741b

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Thank you for voting us "Best of West Michigan" for the 16th consecutive year! #randyscarpetcare #hollandmichigan #bestofthebest #bestofwestmichigan #WestMichigan #carpetcleaning (at Randy's Carpet Care) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxdEH1kAnB5/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ta5qunhhg9zc

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Tulip Time 2019

Every Spring in Holland, MI, we celebrate the city’s Dutch heritage with the Tulip Time festival. In this moment, our quiet little Lake Michigan beach town is flooded with tourists, clomping wooden shoes, and exploding with color. There are millions of tulips blooming here! Next year, come see it for yourself. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the famous flowers that I took while downtown yesterday.

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Sixteen Consecutive “Best of the Best” Wins

The winners of the Holland Sentinel Newspaper’s “Best of the Best” competition were announced on Sunday, and for the sixteenth year in a row, Randy’s Carpet Care has won “Best Carpet Cleaning.” Thank you to the Sentinel, our loyal customers, and everyone who voted for us. It’s an honor and a privilege to be invited into your homes, businesses, schools, and churches year after year.

We are grateful!

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What is an allergy?

My little hometown of Newport, KY faces invasion every Spring. On the east side of town, countless pear trees produce white and pink flowers in folks’ yards, along the sidewalks, and down the median on Saratoga Street where the train tracks used to be. There must be a hundred or more of these pear trees, and all of those blossoms are a breathtaking sight.

Literally.

You can walk just about anywhere you may want to go in Newport, and I did. Everywhere, actually, including to the bookstore where I worked, right through the east side of town where white and pink petals float on the breeze like an enemy fleet at sea. Come April, I swear it felt like those trees were trying to kill me. My eyes would swell and get itchy, I’d sneeze like crazy, invest a small fortune in tissues and meds, and struggle to breathe. Sinus and ear infections invariably followed. Two years in a row I ended up in the emergency room for breathing treatments. It was awful.

Your immune system is usually a wonderful defense against all manner of ills, but in this case my immune system was being neurotic and overzealous. Allergic reactions occur when your body identifies a foreign invader, like pollen, as being dangerous, even though it’s not. Antibodies are dispatched, proteins used to communicate with your cells, telling them to create histamine whenever said invader is present. Once it hits your bloodstream, the battle begins. You know the drill, soldier.

What I’m describing is commonly known as Hay Fever, also called Allergic Rhinitis. I’m lucky that it’s my most serious allergy, because some allergies can be deadly. Peanuts and bee stings, for instance, can cause anaphylaxis in some people, which in severe cases can kill you. Your doctor can determine what allergies you may have by performing a blood and/or a skin test. For most of us, relief can be found by taking over-the-counter antihistamine and/or decongestant medication, but some of us may require prescription meds, allergy shots, or immunotherapy.

Mold is a common allergy that many folks find worrisome. I wrote about that here.

My stepson is allergic to the world, it seems (he’s even allergic to cold air, no joke), but for a moment, we were convinced his situation was even worse than it actually is. I wrote about it here.

If you suffer from seasonal allergies like me, there are many steps you can take to limit allergens in your home. I wrote about that here. SPOILER ALERT: Carpet cleaning is high on that list!

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How to help dry your carpet after a professional cleaning

There are few sureties in life, but there’s one I can count on at work: the client I’m speaking with is going to ask, “How long does it take for the carpet to dry after you’ve cleaned it?” It’s a good question because the answer is going to effect how they live in their home immediately after the cleaning. Now, I’ve written about this before, but I’d like to revisit this question and talk about what you can do to expediate the dry time.

You can expect your carpet to be damp for about 24 hours, given normal conditions after a hot water extraction. To help the process along (and maybe even speed it up), you can:

Set the temperature in your home for between 73° & 75° Fahrenheit. I know this is hot, but it’s optimum. If it’s too hot or too cold in your house, you’re going to trap moisture in the carpet.

Turn on any and all fans that you may have; ceiling fans, exhaust fans, box fans… Whatever you’ve got. It all helps.

Light a fire in your fireplace.

So long as it’s not terribly humid outside, open a window or a door. Let the air flow!

Keep in mind that the two most important factors for getting your carpet dry iare air temperature and movement. You want to make sure that air is circulating throughout and not sitting still. If air has nowhere to go while your carpet is drying, the humidity in your house will go up. Think of the air in your home as a glass. If it fills with water, there’s no room for more, so the moisture in the carpet will have to wait.

Remember, air movement through your carpet fibers is inhibited when you leave footprints in the wet carpet (this is one reason that Professional Carpet Cleaning Technicians groom the carpet after cleaning). Try to walk on it as little as possible while damp. You have to live there, though, so don’t stress about it too much. Make sure everyone is wearing clean socks and being conscientious, and you’ll be fine. Just don’t forget to clean the dog’s paws off when she comes in from outside, and leave your shoes at the door!

Here’s a surety you can count on: Randy’s Carpet Care is West Michigan’s most trusted carpet cleaning company. If you live in West Michigan, call today to schedule your free in-home estimate. [phone]

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10 Ways To Help Prevent Flooding In Your Home

by Jeremy Strickland

I’m from Newport, KY, a beautiful little city across the big brown Ohio River from Cincinnati. Summers in that area are scorchers. In August, it can get to be over 100° Fahrenheit with 100% humidity to boot, so when I moved to West Michigan, I immediately fell in love with the mild summers. I mean, I’ve always loved summer, but I’ll take 85° and low humidity coupled with a nice breeze coming off of Michigan’s cool waters any day. Lake life! Oh, yes, it’s the best.

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the winters here, though. “Polar Vortex” was not even in my vocabulary until January 2019, but now that phrase is burned (frozen?) into my vernacular. West Michigan had an entire week of nonstop snow and dangerously cold temperatures. With the windchill, it got to be something like -45° outside. Stupid cold!

At work, this led to a significant number of flood jobs due to frozen pipes which burst. Frozen pipes can lead to flooding basements back in my old Kentucky home too, but flooding is more likely to occur because of significant rainfall which causes the Ohio River to spill over. Regardless of where you live, though, flooding can and will be a problem given the right scenario, and it’s a costly one too.

So, what can you do to help prevent flood water damage in your home?

Know your flood level. This is the official measurement for how high waters may rise in your area. Outlets, switches, and sockets should all be installed at least a foot above this level. The building department of your city and your home owner’s insurance company should have this info. You can also check FEMA’s flood maps on their website.

Mind your pipes. Insulate them and keep water trickling through them when the temperature outside drops below 20°. It’s a good idea to install check valves too.

Maintain a warm temperature indoors. Turning the heat down at night may save you a few bucks on your energy bill, but you’ll save even more money if you don’t have to deal with a flooded basement. If you must turn the thermostat down, or if you’re going out of town during the winter months, go no lower than 55°. It’s also a good idea to keep kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors open so you can keep the pipes under your sinks warm too.

Check your foundation. If it’s cracked, it’ll need to be sealed. You can also install foundation vents to allow water to move through it instead of building up outside of it.

Insulate and seal up any cracks. Attics, basements, and crawl spaces should all be well insulated to help keep warm air in and cold air out. Check your windows, doors, and sill plates for cracks. Locate ’em and get ’em sealed!

Landscape. Make sure your lawn slopes away from your home. Don’t put mulch up against your house. Wet mulch can lead to rot which can compromise the siding and cause leaks.

Check your sump pump. Does it have a battery back-up? It really should. Losing power is bad enough, you don’t want to lose power and have your basement flood too.

Check your gutters. Keep them clean and make sure the downspouts are pointing away from your house.

Retrofit. This is an expensive option, but raising your house on stilts or piers above the flood level can drastically reduce your home’s chances for flooding if you live in area prone to it.

Know what to do when flooding is imminent. If you can’t stop the great wave from coming, at least take precautions to minimize your losses. Turn off the power to areas likely to be affected. Get rugs, electronics, clothes, toys, and furniture up to a higher level of your home. Put appliances up on blocks. Have sandbags at the ready to block gaps. Put together an emergency go-bag for you and your family. Besides clothes, food, and medication, make sure you have enough cash packed in your bag to get you through a few days.

Whether you live in Kentucky, Michigan, California, or Hong Kong, water damage is a concern best addressed before there’s a wading pool in your house. Still, while taking these precautions will go a long way to safeguard your property, sometimes these things are unavoidable. If your home does flood, do not attempt to deal with it yourself. You’re much better off calling in a professional who will leave no stone unturned and do everything possible to mitigate the damage and prevent mold growth.

If you live in West Michigan, you’re lucky to have the award winning team at Randy’s Carpet Care to take the heat off of you. Call today for more information.

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I'm proud to announce our new e-book, "Randy's Carpet Care: An unexpected guide to carpet, cleaning, & your home." This helpful and entertaining digital tome is available exclusively through the Kindle store, and will be available for free from Friday, 3/22 through Sunday, 3/24. Don't miss out! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PH3JXZD?fbclid=IwAR04LVk8q4oOo0Zw-WofPuYALWxzxULqkpyzhtH1wl3ucMoLNF5a9UJTMJ0 (at Holland, Michigan) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvRm0IuAkz4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1icziyot9klpd

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An unexpected introduction

Maybe I’m wrong, but I suspect that no five year old has ever stood up in front of their kindergarten class and proudly announced, “I want to be a Carpet Cleaner when I grow up!” I certainly didn’t (I wanted to be a paleontologist,  an artist, or Indiana Jones). Needless to say, my career trajectory at West Michigan’s Randy’s Carpet Care has been an unexpected one. Looking for a career change from retail management at a bookstore in early 2014, not even the most clairvoyant psychic could have prognosticated that I’d become a Professional Carpet Cleaning Technician, let alone kind of dig it. Fast forward a couple of years, and Randy surprised me by asking me to move out of the field and into the office for marketing and sales during the winter months, a job that evolved into a year round position with ever-growing responsibilities, culminating in a promotion to General Manager at the end of 2018.

One of the first tasks I assumed after transitioning into the office was writing the Randy’s Carpet Care blog. This has been my absolute favorite job at work, but I never expected to write a book. Surprise! After more than three years of penning the blog, weaving my knowledge of our industry with my absurd sense of humor and heaps of pop culture references, here I am, writing the introduction for a collection which gathers the most useful highlights and my favorite essays from the blog for an E-Book.

Now, the burning question; the big dancing ape wearing a red tutu in the middle of the room: Why would a normal person who walks on carpet but never gives it a second thought after vacuuming it be interested in a comprehensive go-to guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning Industry consumers?

Geeze, even that sentence sounds boring!

Well, not only will this book answer all the sizzling questions about your next carpet cleaning, it will also entertain you while satisfying your curiosity about DIY home cleaning, history, science, allergic reactions, and my favorite topic: dog pee. Carpet Cleaning may not be the most glamorous of industries, but when looked at with wit and a little imagination, it can be a fun topic. That’s why this book features articles which include visits from a Sasquatch, advice on how to deal with dragon’s breath, and even a brief lesson on Greek Mythology.

As a writer, the rule cuddled up next to my heart is: “Show, don’t tell,” so I try to paint a lush landscape with watercolor words. Writing packs a bigger punch when it illustrates than when it pontificates. “Show, don’t tell” is also the way that Randy’s Carpet Care works. With nearly 40 years in the business at the time of this publication, our results speak volumes. It’s no wonder we’ve been voted “Best of the Best” by the readers of the Holland Sentinel Newspaper for the last fourteen consecutive years.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think anyone has ever picked up their tablet or cell phone, and announced, “I’m going to read a carpet cleaning e-book!” I’m sure you didn’t, but here you are. However you found your way to this tome, I hope that you learn something useful, have a laugh, and discover that you actually kind of dig it.

Randy’s Carpet Care: An unexpected guide to carpet, cleaning, & your home is available here.

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Please vote for Randy's Carpet Care! https://hollandsentinel.gatehousecontests.com/2018-Best-of-the-Best/ #vote #getoutthevote #holland #michigan #WestMichigan #bestofthebest #bestofwestmichigan #carpetcleaning #steamcleaning #localbusiness (at Holland, Michigan) https://www.instagram.com/p/BueIgCkgcnK/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h44llos6zqeb

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Vote for Randy’s Carpet Care!

Every year, the Holland Sentinel Newspaper holds a competition to discover who’s the Best of the Best. Local folks are encouraged to visit the contest website and vote for their favorite businesses in a myriad of categories. Last year marked Randy’s Carpet Care’s fifteenth consecutive win for “Best Carpet Cleaning Company” and our first win in the category of “Best Cleaning Company.”

Please take a moment to follow the link and vote for Randy’s Carpet Care in the category of “Services For Home.”

Thank you!

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Eight Simple Steps To Prevent Mold Growth In Your Home

Mesopotamia. 3900 BCE. Some lucky schmuck with a cereal grain farm accidentally brews the worlds first beer, probably due to wild yeasts in the air. He became very popular with his neighbors and threw legendary parties.

Egypt. 1391 BCE. An artisan took a nasty fall from the scaffolding of a sphinx he was chiseling and was rushed by his coworkers to Imhotep, a celebrated swnw, the ancient Egyptian equivalent to a physician(albeit one who’s methods included magic spells). Dr Imhotep took a look at the many cuts and scrapes his patient had suffered, grabbed a big hunk of moldy bread, and assured the poor dude that he would be infection free.

France. 879 CE. Distracted by a beautiful girl while taking his lunch break in a cave, a young Frenchman abandoned his cheese to give chase. Many moons later, he returned to the cave and decided to eat his leftovers. They were delicious. Thanks to Penicillium roqueforti mold, the world’s first blue cheese, Roquefort, had been created. Salad eaters the world over rejoiced.

London. 1928 CE. Professor Alexander Fleming was sorting through his vast and varied collection of petri dishes at St Mary’s Hospital like a kid going through his comic book collection. Another day, another colony of Staphylococcus. This day, however, contained a surprise. One of the petri dishes contained an odd mold growth, which seemed to be repelling the Staphylococcus bacteria. Later, he managed to collect a concentrated amount of the bacteria killing mold juice, which he called “Penicillin.”

Yeast and mold both come from the fungus kingdom, reproducing via lightweight spores. While yeast is loved for it’s bread and beer making abilities, Mold is the fungus among us with a shady reputation. However, as illustrated by the above historical examples, some molds, like yeast, are good friends to us humans. We live with more than 300,000 varieties of mold on planet Earth. It’s quite pervasive and can be found in any environment. Without a doubt, this fungus is in your house right now, and I’m not talking about beer, antibiotics, or cheese.

Don’t panic. Mold spores need to find a nice wet area to settle into with organic material to feed on in order to grow and spread. The degree to which a concentration of mold may be a problem for you depends on who’s living in your home. For most of us, if we have a reaction to mold at all, it’s a respiratory issue indistinguishable from seasonal allergies. It may be a mild irritation, but you can live with it. Mold becomes problematic when it’s concentrated in a home with young children, the elderly, asthmatics, or folks with compromised immune systems.

Stachybotrys, or black mold, is particularly notorious but rare. The mold itself is not toxic, but the mycotoxins it excretes are. The big fear of black mold stems from a 1999 incident in Cleveland, OH, where two infants were thought to have been killed by black mold. However, further review by the Center for Disease Control in the year 2000 found that the case in Cleveland was flawed, and there is no direct evidence that black mold was the guilty party. Other studies have shown that black mold mycotoxins can cause hemorrhaging in the lungs of animals but only in high concentrations.

The takeaway here is that while some molds are problematic, you can and do live with most mold without much trouble. Still, finding ugly mold stains in your home is disparaging, and if you want to sell that home, mold is definitely a problem which will require a professional remediation in order to rid the infected areas of your home and prevent mold from returning.

So, how can you prevent mold growth in your home? Mold needs moisture and organic material to feed on in order to thrive. You need to remove these ingredients as best as you can, so:

Keep a clean house. Even dust contains organic matter, so stay on top of it, and clean up any spills as soon as they happen.

Change dish rags, wash cloths, and bath towels regularly.

Don’t leave food out more than 2-3 hours. Seal it in containers when you put it in the fridge.

Fix leaky pipes and take precautions to keep your home dry. In extreme cases, this may require landscaping to slope water away from your house.

Remove carpet from humid spots in your house, like a bathroom or laundry room.

Use dehumidifiers. Keeping humidity under 60% is a good goal, but the lower, the better.

Utilize exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom when cooking, washing dishes, or taking a shower. Any appliance that requires venting, should be venting outdoors.

Use mold resistant paint. This is particularly helpful in the kitchen, basement, bathrooms, and laundry room.

Holland, MI. 2019 CE. Randy’s Carpet Care has been performing professional mold remediation for nearly 40 years. Live in West Michigan and suspect a mold problem in your home? Call Randy’s Carpet Care to schedule a free remediation estimate. [phone]

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Why is it important to write Google reviews?

After forty years in business, the lion’s share of the work we do here at Randy’s Carpet Care comes from repeat customers. As it should be! We work hard for the honor and privilege of returning to folks’ homes and businesses year after year. Still, we’re always happy to provide service to new customers and also work hard (and spend buckets of marketing bucks) to let potential customers know we’re here, ready, willing, and able to clean their carpets and upholstery.

But this is Holland, Michigan we’re talking about! If you know anything about Holland, you know that it is a small, tightly knit beach community. No matter how much we invest into advertising for new customers, the best marketing tool we have at our disposal is word of mouth. People talk, and word gets around, especially in a small town like ours.

In this, the age of the internet, when everyone carries a powerful computer in their pocket, the way people talk has evolved. Folks are not just talking at work or at church on Sunday morning, they’re in touch 24/7. What we think of as “word of mouth” has changed. The average person looks at their phone once every 12 minutes or about 80 times a day. When you think about your own phone usage, ask yourself this: How many times out of your own 80 phone checks per day do you Google a business or search for a specific kind of business? Google, I’m sure you’ll agree, is the first word that many of us receive when we’re looking for a restaurant, frame shop, service provider, or whatever else it may be that we want or need.

Thanks to a feature that allows Google users to rate and review businesses, that first word from Google is complete with many more words from other local folks who’ve had firsthand experience with a local business. This is why taking the time to rate and review your favorite businesses is so very important for a small, local business like Randy’s Carpet Care. This modern word of mouth can strongly influence whether or not a potential customer takes a chance and contacts Business A as opposed to Business B.

Unfortunately, human beings are wired in such a way that drives us to leave reviews when things aren’t to our liking more often than when they’re spectacular, or even when they’re just plain old good. So, let’s change that! Now that you know how important it can be to your favorite local businesses, take a few minutes after your next experience to let potential new customers know how you feel (here are handy step by step instructions for you). Then, if you’re feeling really generous or empowered, do the same on Facebook or Yelp!

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a service provider, Google reviews are one important piece of a larger equation. Follow this link to another article I wrote on this subject, or just check out the video below.

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What is the best way to clean your carpet?

So, you’re a responsible adult, right? You see a mess in your home, and you just can’t have it, you roll up your sleeves and clean it up. No brainer, right? Unfortunately, this logic should not apply to cleaning your carpet. If you want the best possible result, want to prevent setting stains or causing damage, and want to maintain your carpet’s warranty, you need professional cleaning.

Professional carpet cleaning benefits you in several ways, and it’s not all aesthetic.

First, professional carpet cleaning equipment is far more powerful than what you may own (or rent) for do-it-yourself cleaning at home. From vacuum power to water pressure to water temperature, there’s no competition here.

Second, professionals use specific chemicals and specific processes for specific jobs. Put simply, your carpet will be much cleaner if a professional cleans it. Some folks will tell you that you shouldn’t use soaps or chemicals at all, but this is absolutely wrong. Just like with your dishes, laundry, or hair, soap and hot water are crucial to getting your carpet cleaned. Other folks will tell you to use vinegar and baking soda. It’ll give you a cool chemical reaction for sure, but you should know that that reaction is a cancelling of the two chemicals. You may as well just be using water to clean.

Third, steam cleaning (or “hot water extraction” as we know it in the business) removes allergens, germs, bacteria, and mites from your carpet. Professional carpet cleaning is good for the health of your family.

Fourth, professional carpet cleaning is oftentimes required to maintain your carpet’s warranty. Once every 12 to 18 months is a common requirement.

Fifth, regular professional carpet cleaning increases the useful life of your carpet. Long story short, if you stick to that every 12 to 18 months schedule recommended by carpet manufacturers, you are likely to see your investment in your carpet stretch over a greater distance in time.

If I needed electrical work or heart surgery done, I would not attempt to do it myself, no matter how many Youtube videos I’ve watched! While the consequences of DIY carpet cleaning may not be quite as drastic as a DIY triple bypass would be, it’s best to apply the same logic to getting the job done. If you want it done right, it’s best to hire a trained specialist.

Randy’s Carpet Care has been specializing in professional carpet and upholstery cleaning for the last forty years! If you’re in West Michigan, call us today to schedule your free estimate.

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For the last fifteen consecutive years, the readers of the Holland Sentinel newspaper have voted Randy’s Carpet Care “Best of the Best” for carpet cleaning. Now the time has come to defend our title! Please follow this link to nominate us in the category of “Services For Home!”

Thank you!