The Cesco-Kuebler family started Evansville Rug Cleaning in the 1920s. The family’s homestead was right next door to the existing building that stands today at 2122 N. Willow Road, and operated the business until they retired and sold it to Benny and Jeff Day.
“I happened to be in a position with my father (Benny), who owned Dyna-Kleen Services, to be considered for carrying on their reputation,” says Jeff, who marked 40 years in the carpet business this year. “Ironically, we were able to buy it from the Kuebler family back in the late 80s, and at that time, Evansville Rug Cleaning became a subsidiary of Dyna-Kleen Services.”
When Evansville Rug Cleaning was purchased, some of the business’s employees were inherited by the Days. “The most important of which was Mr. Harold Kuebler, who was the son of the founder,” says Jeff. “He was in his late 70s, and worked with us until a week before he passed.”
“We do a lot of the things the way he used to do them,” says Kevin, Jeff’s son who has been with the business full time for eight and half years. “Technology has changed, and the industry has changed, but being with Harold and having him show us how they did things that’s where a lot of our knowledge comes from.”
The generations of Days credit the key to their success to an automated rug cleaner made by the MOR Company in 1940. Called wringers, the unique — the closest other one is in St. Louis — and large machine lifts rugs off the floor and feeds them through to be cleaned, scrubbed, rinsed, and rolled, ready to be dried.
Evansville Rug Cleaning discarded most of the automated parts of the ringer and does more of the process by hand now, such as cleaning fringe, rinsing with a high-volume jet, and cleaning both sides of the rug as opposed to just the surface.
As time progressed, the business started to phase some practices out and focus more on in-home carpet cleaning with truck mounted cleaning equipment, as well as free pickup and delivery of rugs and furniture.
“We’re one of the few companies around that will go and pick up your furniture at home, bring it to our facility, clean it, and then return it, either to that location or if you’re moving to a new location,” says Jeff.
That convenience factor and competitive pricing has built the business a loyal customer clientele, some of which will ship rugs to be cleaned from all over the country.
“We clean a range of $15 car mats and in the same hour, a $100,000 Kashan — something very high-end,” says Jeff.
Pieces of equipment located at the shop are used to clean furniture in ways that couldn’t be utilized at a customer’s home. An air compressor is used to blow particles out of the furniture or from underneath it, skirted furniture can be steamed and pressed, and microfiber or velvet furniture can be brushed to feel soft again after cleaning.
“We’re also blessed to have technicians that have been here a long time that are experienced in a sense that there’s probably nothing they haven’t seen in their time here with us,” says Jeff. “We have one technician that still to this day is a daily figure in our on location cleaning that’s been here for 23 years. We really boast the fact that we have experience on our staff.”
Evansville Rug Cleaning will be replacing the roofs on its buildings after this spring’s storm damage and are leaving room to physically expand at some point in the future.
“Old school is a term that a lot of people use loosely, but years before we got into the business, they were still sending out their trucks to pick up furniture and bringing it back here, and cleaning it and then returning it to the customer,” says Jeff. “We love it when people call us old-school, because we truly are.”
For more information about Evansville Rug Cleaning, call 812-423-5415 or visit evansvillerugcleaning.com.
