Duraclean Journal of Marketing, Management and Technical Topics

Criss is the Second Featured Duraclean "Franchise of the Month"!

Rick Criss as the owner of Duraclean Services LCC of Forest Hills, MD is the eight times "President's Circle" award winner and the International Franchise Association's "Award of Excellence" winner.




Rick bought his franchise from the current owner Joe Rush in June, 1988. Prior to that he worked at Safeway Grocery stores for 15 years, the last 10 of which were in management. Rick always wanted to own his own business. He says that, "The challenges of building a business and making my own business decisions always appealed to me."


Rick currently leases 7,500 sq. ft. of office and warehouse space. They are actively looking to purchase a 10,000 sq. ft. facility.

As part of that facility are cleaning areas for contents from packouts...





...a boxing area for repacking contents cleaned as a result of a packout...





...flooring supplies for replacement including carpet and pad...





...and an area in their office space for carpet sales which also includes hardwood and laminate floor options.





Their service vehicles include 4 extraction vans, 2 passenger vans, i pickup truck and 1 box van.





Currently Duraclean Services LLC has 148 air movers and 46 dehumidifiers. They also have 15 negative machines and a soda blasting system for their burgeoning mold remediation services.





Duraclean Services LLC has a Partner - Pete Carpenter.





Duraclean Services LLC has a total of 18 dedicated employees. Here are the rest of them:


Office Manager - Lorie Masters...

Receptionist - Lisa Eckoff...





Marketing - Frank Thomas...

Estimator - Jared Harkens...








Estimator - Amy Gfrerer...





Field Manager - Tim Criss...







...and the Technicians.







Rick said that. "The greatest challenge in our business is maintaining a quality workforce in the field. Also, adjusting to the quick growth in our business particularly in the repair and reconstruction area."



The most unusual/most memorable job done by his franchise occurred this past February. "Maryland was hit with 2 blizzards with record snowfalls in less than a week. We had almost 60 inches of snow."











"We thought that the weather conditions would just put a halt to our business. 'Ice Damning' saved us!"











"We received approximately 70 water mitigation calls and 40 to 50 reconstruction jobs as a result."








As another means to market their business on April 27th Rick presented a full day water damage restoration CE (continuing education) course to insurance agents in his area. He had 19 agent attendees of which 15 were new contacts. He is very interested in seeing how the new contacts will translate into new business. This is the second time that Rick has offered a CEC presentation. His first was in November, 2008 when he held two consecutive courses (water and mold) and was assisted by Duraclean Vice President Bill Ondratschek.

Labels: Criss, Franchise of the Month