Scrunching up your nose in distaste? Get to the
root of the stinky problem. By Eve M. Kahn
Outgoing IICRC President Ruth Travis addresses
the issue of odor removal in the household in the
June issue of House Beautiful. Questions answered
include which odors are the most difficult to remove,
if certain fabrics are more susceptible to odors
and what do to if you see mold on your upholstery.
To read the article in its entirety, please click
here.
Green Cleaning Spruces Up Environment
Consumers Sway Toward Cleaning Products That
Don't Adversely Affect the Environment
By Annabelle
Robertson WebMD Feature
Former IICRC Technical Advisor Jeff Bishop discusses the importance of “cleaning green." To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
It's spring cleaning time at home
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
By Katie Leslie March 27, 2008
The Atlanta Journal Constitution provides spring
cleaning tips for homeowners as the city heads into
the new season. IICRC certified master restorer
and cleaner Jeremy Reets recommends several tips,
including a yearly top-to-floor professional cleaning,
as well as having your mattress cleaned professionally
once a year.
To read the article in its entirety, please click
here.
The Record April 16, 2007
Flood Tips
After the devastating floods in New Jersey, The
Record ran the following flood tips from the Institute
of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification,
along with additional advice for pre- and post-storm
safety.
1. Safety first. Before you enter your flooded
or damaged home, make sure you and your family aren’t
at risk of electrical shock. 2. Assess the damage,
either through your insurance company or by enlisting
the help of a water damage restoration company/specialist.
3. Ventilate your home -- in order to stop mold
from growing and spreading. Open your doors and
ventilate with fresh air. 4. Evaluate moisture
levels in structural materials. 5. Reconstruct
or replace components as required.
Allergy season is upon us, but there are ways
to improve the indoor air quality in your home.
“According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation
of America, Atlanta is one of the country’s top
20 worst cities for spring allergy sufferers. And
this year, the organization also bestowed upon Atlanta
the designation of Top 2007 Asthma Capital.” In
addition to using medication, there are new technologies
which can help remove allergens from your home.
Seattle Post Intelligencer By Craig Harris
March 9, 2007
Retail Notebook: Rug Cleaner’s
Roots
The Seattle Post Intelligencer chats with Thea
Sands of Emmanuel’s Rug & Upholstery Cleaners, a
fourth generation family business that has operated
in Seattle for the past four generations.
NBC Action investigators (www.nbcactionnews.com)
in Kansas City, Mo., interview IICRC Master Textile
Cleaner Brian Bock about what consumers should expect
from a professional carpet cleaner. Many unscrupulous
cleaners offer coupons through the newspaper and
then fail to honor the advertised price. Bock informs
viewers that an IICRC-Certified Firm will always
take the appropriate steps to vacuum, pre-condition,
extract moisture from, groom and dry the carpet.
Click play button to view
video. Adobe Flash
player require to view video.
Tips on Caring
ForYour Area Rugs and Carpets
Roy Thomsitt November 18, 2006
The value of your area rugs and carpets will,
of course, depend on their quality, size, type and
style. However, whatever they have cost, they are
an asset worth maintaining and cleaning well. There
are two reasons for that. Firstly, the pile of a
rug or carpet can harbor lots of dirt, dust, mites
and other particles and insects. Regular cleaning
will help to keep such infestations and debris to
a minimum, which is good for your family's domestic
health. Secondly, the rug will not only look better
but its life will be preserved.
You Can Run, But
You Can't Hide by Daniel Paul Simmons
III
With more than 100,000 species
worldwide, roughly a thousand of which are native
to the United States, molds are literally everywhere
on the planet, including Antarctica. In nature,
these fungi serve as a catalyst—speeding decomposition
and ridding the planet of megatons of dead plant
matter. And some varieties even have a time-honored
place within our homes. After all, you owe the penicillin
in your medicine cabinet to a mold called Penicillium
chrysogenum, part of the same genus as
Penicillium roqueforti, the mold you can thank
for that delightful Roquefort cheese stinking up
your fridge.
Click here for more and read IICRC Technical
Advisor Jeff Bishop expert commentary in the photo
gallery called “Mold!”
MilliCare Offers
Carpet Education Classes The classes
will begin in December. by Staff
Interior Design · November 13, 2006
Knowing
what to do with flood-damaged possessions is often
a simple matter of answering the question: Hard
or soft?
The porosity -- or ability of water to pass through
-- is a good indicator of whether to junk an item
or not, says Jeff Bishop, a technical adviser for
the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration
Certification, a nonprofit association based in
Vancouver, Wash.
Company's product
helps fight insurance fraud by
Tony Quesada Staff Writer
June 16, 2006
JACKSONVILLE --
SkyeTec, an indoor environmental-consulting
company, will launch a hosted computer application
on July 1 designed to help insurers review claims
for drying structures damaged by water.
SkyeTec executives say the company's property
claims calculator can reduce or mitigate the rise
in property-insurance premiums based on the company's
experience performing manually the kind of review
the new program is designed to accomplish.
In an instant, years of memories can go up in
flames.
Stacks of books, furniture, paintings and photographs
— damaged by smoke and covered in layers of soot
— can be found inside the gutted and charred remains
of a house destroyed by fire.
Homeowners dealing with the emotional trauma
of losing their personal belongings can sometimes
find comfort in the services provided by restoration
technicians, who remove and clean anything that
might be salvageable.
The nonprofit Institute of Inspection, Cleaning
and Restoration Certification's Web site contains
a comprehensive set of procedures and recommendations
for flood victims that has been used by insurance
carriers, particularly as a reference for victims
of hurricane Katrina. Go to
www.certifiedcleaners.org
and click on "Advice for Storm Victims" for the
complete document.
Up in Calistoga the
day after Christmas, John Koss pointed out the high-water
line (vintage 1997) on the shed behind his ranch-style
house along the Napa River. The river was hurrying
along that day but stayed far below the top of its
banks. At the time, it hardly seemed possible that
within the week the river would encroach on the
shed again.
"It stopped just a little tiny bit below the
line," Koss, who has lived on the river for 18 years,
said the other day. "And then it went back to where
it came from."
