May 15, 2017

Meet Mike Morgos of GreenFreaks Carpet Cleaning in Johns Creek

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Morgos.

Mike, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I guess you could say that I went from diamonds to dirt.

After 25 years of working as a goldsmith, the long hours sitting at a workbench have taken their toll on my body and mind. As much as I loved making fine jewelry, I needed a change, a drastic one. I had to get out of the workshop, I needed to do real work, hard work.

It was right around that time that I needed my carpets cleaned. I found a so called “green” carpet cleaner. The fumes were so strong my family and I had to leave the house for the day. I remember thinking that if this was “green cleaning” I’d hate to see the regular kind. That’s when I knew what I would be doing for the rest of my life. I would start a carpet cleaning company that uses non-toxic products. I’d get the hard work that I was longing for, and maybe even make some money. Some people close to me thought that I’ve lost my mind, I think that I may have found it.

So I scraped up some money, bought a couple of trucks, machines and tools and started GreenFreaks Carpet Cleaning. I jumped right in, read everything that I could find, took classes, and got IICRC certified. I went to restaurants, repair shops and warehouses and practiced on the dirtiest carpet that I could find.

After two years of side by side testing, comparing results from not so green cleaning chemicals with some of the safer ones on the market, I’m happy to say that real “green” carpet cleaning is very possible, it just takes the right products and a little more effort.

The most important thing is not to skip any steps. One often skipped step is mechanical agitation. Scrubbing the cleaning product into the carpet to break the bonds between soils and fibers, making it easier to rinse out and extract while using much less water. Imagine washing your hair and just putting shampoo on the surface and rinsing is off without working it in first, it wouldn’t work very well. Taking our time on this step and a few others increases the effectiveness of our cleaning to equal or surpass “not so green” methods that often just swirl the dirt around and don’t actually remove or extract anything.

Green cleaning is not only about using non-toxic products. If we work hard and get carpets as clean as we can, the owner will get a few more years out of them, minimizing the impact on our landfills. We also strive to lower our water consumption by using lower water pressure with smaller spray jets and we dispose of dirty wastewater properly to keep them out of storm drains that lead to rivers and streams.

While there are several good companies offering “green” carpet cleaning today, we hope that more cleaners will give it a chance and offer it in the near future.

Before hiring your next carpet cleaner, ask them a few tough questions to be sure they aren’t just greenwashing.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Well, it wasn’t easy at first. Changing professions at the age or 45, not knowing if I would be able to support my family was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. I soon realized that as long as I focus on quality rather than speed, customers are happy, and my phone would continue to ring, and it has.

Another problem I had early on was with the misconception about green products not being effective. I still see a few eyes roll when I mention the word “green”. There are suppliers and cleaners that still sell and use the same overly harsh products that have been around for decades. It took some trial and error, but I’ve found products that work very well and are completely non-toxic, odor free, soap free, biodegradable, no VOCs, and made with natural ingredients. I’ve even found a fabric protector that works well even though it does not contain fluorochemicals or Teflon.

Thanks to the internet, I was able to find likeminded people to share information with that have been doing “green cleaning” successfully for years. I’m also lucky to have a mentor that’s been kind enough to guide me along. He’s spent many years in the industry as a cleaner and is now an IICRC instructor, He is Thomas Cermak of Dries in Minutes Carpet Cleaning in Kennesaw.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with GreenFreaks Carpet Cleaning – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
GreenFreaks specializes in cleaning carpet, tile and hardwood floors using truck mounted machines. We do both residential and commercial cleaning.

We pride ourselves in using non-toxic products and methods and do everything we can to protect Families, Pets, Ourselves and our Planet.

We also deep clean upholstery and window blinds using a safe “green” process.

We like to say that we’re “The Cleaner That’s Greener”.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I want GreenFreaks to grow slowly but steadily. Growing too fast could make it difficult to properly train technicians and keep quality high.

It will take some time, but I would like to eventually expand to have enough trucks and crews to service the entire Atlanta area for both the residential and the commercial markets.

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