Market share: J&S Steamway and Thermax: the polished touchstone in surface cleaning.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: SMALL BUSINESS

Alaska is known for its family businesses growing into companies that represent the industry standard, and in carpet cleaning the result is no different.

J&S Steamway has cleaned carpets in Anchorage since 1979, says J&S Steamway Owner Troy Roberts. As a general manager since 1985, Robert Reynolds purchased the company in 1993. Reynolds specialized in carpet cleaning along with water and fire restoration. In 2005, Reynolds opened in Anchorage an affiliate of Interlink Supply, a national distributor of cleaning and restoration supplies; in 2010, it changed hands to his daughter Vanessa Kitchen. Reynolds began to cut back on water and fire restoration services in 2006 to spend more time with his family.

A little farther west from J&S Steamway's current location in South Anchorage, Roberts ran a bed and breakfast from his home in the Jewel Lake neighborhood starting in 1999. Roberts made a switch into carpet cleaning with the formation of Thermax Carpet Cleaning in 2005 with business partner Francis Farrell, he says. The company began with a home-based rental machine from J&S Steamway and then grew with the purchase of a van mount cleaning system, operated from the bed and breakfast.

"The whole idea was--since I owned a bed and breakfast--I was never happy with the people coming and cleaning it. And I thought, if we can vacuum the house faster than the carpet cleaner, what were they really doing? And I didn't like the fees they were charging, so we decided to do it ourselves," Roberts says. "We did a little bit of research and found out J&S Steamway sold equipment in town. And after a few weeks of learning at J&S, we decided to use the same equipment since [Reynolds] was equipped with mechanics on hand, and we decided to use the same chemistry because J&S was the biggest and best in town, so we had no reason to reinvent the wheel."

Roberts adapted J&S methods and cleaning supplies in his own operation at Thermax and even went out with J&S crews for the first few months to learn the equipment. Roberts attained certification from the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification, a standard-setting non-profit organization for the inspection, cleaning, and restoration industries accredited by the American National Standards Institute.

"I practiced trial and error on friends and family for the first six months and learned how to do it. I applied the skills in the manuals and then applied it to the residential homes and started our...