With so many commercial carpet cleaners to choose from in Dallas, it’s good to know that one—IMS—not only cares about the environment, but also the health of anyone who comes into contact with the work it does.

Long before being earth friendly was mainstream and the U.S Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program was in place, IMS Inc.’s Larry Johonnesson put a premium on using only the safest cleaning agents available.

“He was always reading labels,” recalls Johonnesson’s son Jason, current IMS president and founder of the firm’s Natural Stone Restoration Division. “He would not allow anyone to use percoethylene or trichloroethylene because he knew they were cancer-causing chemicals.”

Johonnesson was so adamant about using non-toxic cleaners that he often took his concerns about client and employee health to extremes.

Says son Jason, “Even if [cleaning solutions] had coal tars, which are in perfumes, colognes and other fragrances, he would do whatever he could to find products that didn’t have those in them. And coal tars aren’t even a known carcinogen.”

The way his father figured it, extra additives—even those that made for a pleasant smell—were potentially hazardous. Clean meant clean, pure and simple.

“He didn’t want there to be any lingering odors whatsoever. This is because he felt that there [would also be] lingering things in the air that people [would] breathe in,” Jason explains.

The elder Johonnesson’s foresight paid off long term. The solvents he used in the high moisture cleaning he did as a carpet cleaning professional in the 1980s are the same ones his company uses today, only now they bear official green certification. And every product IMS has adopted since it began doing low moisture work in 2004 is also green-certified.

In keeping with his father’s progressive vision, Jason Johonnesson has worked hard at making sure the Natural Stone Restoration Division of IMS is also as earth-friendly as possible.

“Most of the work with natural stone is mechanical since we use diamond abrasives, he says. “But the final [phase] involves a crystallization polish, and there are some hazardous chemicals involved.”

Environmentally safe, cost-effective alternatives to this polish do exist. But IMS clients often choose go with the non-green solvent because the earth-friendlier version doesn’t produce as glossy a finish. Moreover, LEED does not yet offer incentives for making a green choice where natural stone floor restoration is concerned.

“But the point is that in stone, at least we have those options,” says Johonnesson. “And no one else offers that.”

For nearly 20 years, IMS, Inc. has been at the technological forefront in natural stone restoration, carpet cleaning, concrete polishing and flood damage restoration. Call (214) 351-9390 to speak with a specialist.