Carpet cleaners clean more than just carpets

FALLS CREEK
©Courier-Express/Tri-County 2009

A decision to spend more time with their children led to a new career for Bob and Debbie Hrin. While having her own carpets professionally cleaned, Debbie Hrin thought that was a field the two could pursue and make people happy, and Carpet Spa was born. They had no idea that their plan would lead them beyond cleaning carpets, to helping people get their lives back in order after floods and cleaning up after crimes.

To initially start, the couple went to Pittsburgh for a week of training to learn how to clean carpets and upholstery, but it wasn't long before they began to expand their services and become certified in a number of other areas including biorecovery, fire clean-up and structural drying. The two attend training sessions regularly to stay up-to-date.

The school they attended in Pittsburgh set them up with a supplier, who is always available to answer questions about how to get different types of stains out.
Bob Hrin became nationally certified in biorecovery, which is pretty unique to this area, since in the past crews have had to be called in from miles away to clean up, he said.

This field requires a certain type of person since the person may be cleaning up after a traumatic event such as a crime or a serious injury. "About a year ago, I saw a need for it and felt it was something I could do," Bob Hrin said. He does have part-time people, that he trained, that help him out. It's important to be able to detach yourself from the situation when doing this type of work.
It requires specialized training on how to deal with the situation, as well as learning what may need to be reported because it could be important to the investigation. If a body is in the home for a few days before it is found, there can also be dangerous airborne pathogens present that can be breathed in, so proper precautions needed to be taken, such as wearing a face mask.
People often aren't aware of the dangers of what they can come in contact with in these situations.

To become certified in biorecovery, Bob Hrin had to learn how to disinfect for viruses and learn about the decomposition of the body. The Hrins' goal is to get things back to normal as quickly as possible for people, whether it is while doing biorecovery or structural drying.

One time, a family had been out of town for a few days and their pipes froze. It was discovered on Christmas, leading to water everywhere.The Hrins told the family to go and enjoy Christmas at a relatives' house and they worked to get everything cleaned up. In four days, the house was dry and back to normal. "You can dry out a house without tearing everything apart," Debbie Hrin said. There are machines that will dry the walls through dry wall, so the walls don't have to be torn down.
Another job required Carpet Spa to remove 15,000 gallons of water from an office building. It dried out within five days without carpets being ripped out and everything taken apart after a pipe broke. And when a second pipe broke, they went in and cleaned that up, as well.

Time is of the essence with water because the quicker the response, the less damage, and the quicker the situation is under control, Bob Hrin said. But you also have to be careful when drying out an area, because if you dry it too quickly, there can be secondary damage from condensation.

An environment that mold doesn't like has to be created, Debbie Hrin said.
Being a firefighter for the last 24 years, Bob Hrin knows first hand the mess that can be left after a fire so Carpet Spa does fire restoration, as well.
It helps to know the type of fire, whether it is a natural, synthetic or protein (food), because that determines what needs to be used on the walls, rugs and furniture to clean it. If it's a wood fire, or natural fire, that is the simplest to clean. Synthetic is the most difficult because it is oil based, Debbie Hrin said. But before they even do that, the rooms need to be dried out since usually the fire department has sprayed water into the room to put out the fire.

As a family-owned business, Carpet Spa tries to go above and beyond what is expected. "We've gone to bat for customers a lot to make sure they get what they are entitled to from their insurance company," Bob Hrin said. People being taken advantage of bothered Bob Hrin when he was a mechanic and it bothers him in the carpet business, too. "We like to see people get more for their buck," Bob Hrin said. "We always try to do a little extra, such as cleaning the throw rugs." Their priority is customer satisfaction.

Although they don't always work regular hours after an emergency, the Hrins' also clean carpets and tile by appointment and can set the times.Carpet Spa has cleaned tile and carpets in factories, restaurants, hotels and churches. For many carpet and upholstery jobs, hot water is all that is needed. Unlike many other companies, Bob and Debbie Hrin have a machine that cleans the carpet, rather than using a wand. The carpet dries in about an hour. Hot water is the most effective cleaner, but they also use a mild detergent on rugs that is safe for people and pets. People don't realize that it doesn't cost that much more to have someone do it professionally then it does to rent a machine. And if they do it themselves and there is a soap residue left behind, dirt will be attracted to it and a month later it will look worse then it does originally, Debbi Hrin said.

Death's a messy business ... somebody's got to clean it up. Hey, it's a living.

By DANA DiFILIPPO
Philadelphia Daily News

difilid@phillynews.com 215-854-5934

GOBS OF GORE, the stench of decomposing flesh and maggots squirming in dead bodies would make most people run, retching, the other way.

Not Tom Rohling.

The Reading man runs Tragic Solutions, a crime-scene cleanup company based in North Jersey. Rohling removes all toxic traces of suicides, homicides and other messy tragedies from the homes and businesses where they occurred.

"As bizarre as it sounds, I like it - I like to help people, and this does help a lot of people," said Rohling, a retired homicide detective who started his business about six years ago.

In an economy in which few careers seem recession-proof, crime-scene cleanup is one industry that's booming.

The burdens and blessings - yes, there are some - of the business are featured in a new movie, "Sunshine Cleaning," which opened last weekend.

But, although the movie's lead character, Rose, transforms herself overnight from unhappy maid to calamity-cleaner/crisis-counselor, experts warn that that path into the profession is perilous.

"This stuff is easy to learn and hard to master," said Dale Cillian, president of the industry's trade group, the American Bio-Recovery Association.

Cillian owns an Arizona crime-scene cleanup company, which he opened in 1985, and which he claims is the "world's oldest."

"I run into things, after 24 years, that I've never seen before," said Cillian, a retired Phoenix firefighter. "You could go out and do this tomorrow with some Windex and paper towels. But that's disaster; you're endangering yourself and your customer."

Some infectious diseases are more virulent than ever, making scenes potentially lethal for those with a stomach steely enough to grapple with the gore, experts say. That means trauma cleaners should, at a minimum, be professionally trained in how to safely contain, clean and dispose of blood-borne pathogens, experts agree.

Some blood-borne pathogens, including hepatitis B, can live in the blood even when the blood is outside the body and has dried, medical experts agree.

And bodily fluids have a way of permeating surfaces, so that even "small" scenes could require cleaners to rip out walls, floors, carpets, appliances and other things.

"Most building materials are porous," said Donna Jaconi, whose Philadelphia-based cleanup company was featured in a 2002 documentary called "Family Values." "So if you have a double homicide, all that blood's got to go somewhere - I've seen plaster walls absorb blood up to the ceiling.

"Shotgun suicides are the worst," added Jaconi, who sold her business in 2004 but still processes crime scenes as a Philadelphia police officer. "It's all through the room, up on the ceiling fan, under counters, on doorknobs."

Cillian agreed: "You could have a piece of skull five rooms down the hall."

Rohling likened trauma cleanup to "peeling layers off an onion: You keep cleaning until you don't find anything."

When cleaning a bedroom in which a man died and wasn't discovered for days, Rohling said, "I had to pull the wood floor up, then the subfloor, then the Sheetrock from the apartment below. A general rule is: The longer the body's been there, the bigger the mess."

Such scenes can require a technological trove of gear to sanitize, such as black lights that show bodily fluids invisible to the eye, thermal and ozone foggers to kill germs in the air and double-filter respirators to protect workers.

But some cleaners also employ decidedly unscientific methods to find contaminants.

"I do a 'squish test,' " said Bob O'Connor, owner of Philadelphia-based Trauma Scene Restoration. "You step on the floor and see if blood comes out between the tongue-and-groove flooring."

Jaconi's secret weapon: hydrogen peroxide.

"When you spray peroxide, it bubbles up if there's blood or bodily fluids," Jaconi said.

With homicide rates relatively steady and suicide rates climbing nationally and locally, trauma cleaning is a career with longevity - especially considering that firearms are the preferred method of people who kill themselves and others.

"It's something that people are always going to need," said Benjamin Lichtenwalner, a Marine and Iraq war veteran who opened his crime-scene cleanup company, Biotrauma Inc., in Georgia with a military buddy about three years ago.

But experts warn that such industry growth has drawn greedy ghouls looking to exploit grieving families at their most vulnerable time.

Experts suggest that mourners ask for a company's qualifications and recommendations before hiring.

Cillian's group requires that members adhere to stringent training; it counts about 70 cleanup companies nationally as members.

Tidying up after a tragedy can get expensive, sparking outcry from some victims' relatives.

"I feel taken advantage of, and I think it's a sham. They robbed me," said George Rohanna, who paid more than $2,500 for O'Connor to clean up his South Philadelphia rowhouse after his son killed himself and his girlfriend there last year.

But cleaners say that the high costs of training, insurance, equipment, waste disposal and other needs drive their rates. A shotgun suicide can cost $3,000, O'Connor said.

"If you get an invoice for $1,000, something's too good to be true," said Rohling, whose rates have ranged from $750 to $25,000, depending on the magnitude of the mess.

Further, most insurance companies and victim-assistance groups will foot the cleanup bill.

And do-it-yourselfers could come to regret not hiring a professional, cleaners warn.

"You can't just wipe up what you see, because come May or June when the weather warms, you'll be like: 'What the heck's that smell? Where are all those flies and maggots coming from?' " O'Connor said.

Despite the disgust that many people hold for the profession, many cleaners find it fulfilling.

"I've sat at the kitchen table with a woman whose husband committed suicide, and she cried for an hour with me," Rohling said. "You become a sort of counselor, a shoulder to lean on."

Lichtenwalner agreed: "We help make things better after the damage has been done."

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