Glen Fredrickson grew up in the facilities care business.
His father was the physical plant director at what is now USU Eastern from 1967 until the late 1980s. His mother worked taking care of some of the dorms at the school. He in turn knew what it was like to be in the business of caring for buildings.
But as a young man his desire to open Clean Masters was not in his mind initially. While he had been raised in the business, instead he worked for 15 years at City Market (where Fresh Market is now) as first a meat cutter and later in management. Then he went to work for Arch Coal. But in 1999, he left the mine and delved into the business he knew as a kid, and started Clean Masters which is today Clean Masters and Son.
Started small
He began by servicing some small accounts and cleaning homes. He also did a lot of reclamation of properties, cleaning up and fixing rentals and homes on the market so they could be rented or sold again.
Then in 2001, PacifiCorp decided to let the cleaning contract out on the power plants in the area and Glen bid on them. He submitted a bid that won that contract. And with it came others.
“We took care of Price City facilities for 10 years,” he said. “Then they decided to go to an in-house staff. But we still provide service for other businesses in town besides the power plants.”
The closing of the Carbon Plant, hurt, of course. But partly because he and his son Chris, who is now works for the company, saw that coming and they also saw a business opportunity, the company began with residential services seriously once again.
Chris heads up the residential part of the business now while Glen still concentrates on industrial, but in the small business they own with 20 employees the cross over is still pretty constant.
Not so simple
It would seem to many who have never been involved that a cleaning business would be the most simple of businesses to operate. But both Fredricksons know that isn’t true. A cleaning business is not just a man with a mop and a floor machine anymore. There is a lot of professionalism and certifications needed to be a firm that can be trusted by the public. Clean Masters is a member of the International Sanitary Supply Supply Association and is certified by the Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification. That certification requires and a professionally trained person be on the job at every project they do.
Their residential business includes almost every service that is needed in the area of home cleaning and damage restoration. They clean carpets with an extraction system, hard surface floors, windows, ducts and blinds.
Carpet cleaning
The core of most home cleaning businesses is carpet cleaning. How it is done varies between companies, but often the result is not what the owner of the home expects. To Clean Masters credit, their customers are satisfied with what was done in their homes.
“They did a really good job on our carpets,” says Becky Tallerico, who lives in Price. “This was the second time I had them do the carpets and they were very thorough as well as very pleasant to work with.”
Ultrasonic cleaning
Blinds are always a problem for homeowners. While people love the fact they can filter and change the light coming into a room, no one likes to clean blinds because it can be tedious.
“We use an ultrasonic system to clean blinds, and the people who do it are highly trained to be sure no damage to blinds is done,” said Glen. “With duct cleaning we use both contact and negative air pressure systems.”
Contact cleaning is using a system where brushes are used to clean the ducts with a vacuum system. Negative systems use high pressure air which pushes dust and other matter toward one vent in the house where it is collected.
“It seems paradoxical, but the system that does not have direct contact with the duct is the best of the two,” said Glen.
After cleaning, ducts are treated with disinfectant and deodorizers. Fredrickson said they also offer electrostatic air filters for systems after they are cleaning. Those filters are non-allergenic and they can be cleaned and used over and over again.
The company’s restoration services include taking care of water damage, applied structural drying, microbial remediation, fire and smoke restoration, as well as odor control. The company also does carpet repair and re-installation.