The Chem-Dry story started in the early 1970s with Robert Harris, a young man from California who worked for a carpet cleaning company while he attended law school at Brigham Young University in Utah.
Harris wasn’t impressed with the cleaning products his company and its competitors were using. They just didn’t work that well,took a long time to dry, left chemical residue that attracted more dirt, and often left customers unhappy. Harris began looking for a better way to clean carpets and found his inspiration unexpectedly – on an airline flight 30,000 feet in the air.
While flying back home during a break in classes, some salad dressing landed on his silk tie. A flight attendant used something Harris didn’t expect to remove the stain: club soda.
So often, great things come from small moments. This one transformed Robert Harris’ life. Over 35 years, countless homes and offices have been made drier, cleaner and healthier because of what happened on a plane on this day in the 1970s, and it all started with a simple what if question in Harris’ mind.
If carbonated water could work on a tie, he thought, why not on carpet?
The concept was simple enough. At the molecular level, carbonation has explosive properties that blast dirt and oil particles from carpet fibers. Our carbonation method is powerful enough to work with only a small amount of water, resulting in a deeper, drier and healthier clean than the most common method, steam cleaning. Steam cleaners force large amounts of hot water into the backing of a carpet, and then rely on high -pressure extraction to lift the water and dirt out. Steam cleaning can be effective, but has some real disadvantages. The more water you put on a carpet, the longer it takes to dry and the more likely the carpet is to breed mold and mildew.
Harris’ discovery was an amazing breakthrough: using healthy and all-natural carbonated water, Harris realized he could start a revolution in the carpet-cleaning industry. The revolution continues: Thirty-six years later, Chem-Dry is the largest carpet cleaning brand, with over 3,500 locations worldwide and a market share of 7 percent, the largest for a single brand.
Today, we still operate with the same entrepreneurial spirit and a deep commitment to maximizing our franchisees’ investment in our brand through research and development, innovation and product development Further, we protect our intellectual property through patents and target our innovation for revenue-generating opportunities for our franchisees. The innovation that gave birth to the Chem-Dry brand continues to create value for our customers and franchisees through the services the discovery made possible: a standard carpet or upholstery cleaning; an additional service like our proprietary Pet Urine Removal Treatments; an Area Rug service; water damage restoration job; protecting and sanitizing floor coverings; or cleaning the tile and stone surface of a home.