Featured in Real Producers Magazine — The Story Behind Absolute Floors & More and Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation

When my wife Jenna went to the mailbox and pulled out the April 2025 issue of Real Producers magazine, she thumbed through it the way you do when you're not expecting anything in particular. Then she found the article. She didn't say a word. I just watched her eyes fill with tears.

That moment — right there — meant more to me than any award, any contract, any revenue milestone I've ever hit. Because Jenna has watched me grind. She has watched my business partners Brandon McKim and Bruce Davis grind. She has watched all of us pour countless sleepless nights into building something from nothing — Absolute Floors & More and Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation — and she has never once asked us to stop. To see her cry in the best possible way, holding a magazine that said our names in print — that was the moment I let myself breathe for just one second and say: you did a good job.

This is that story. The full version. The one I rarely tell on social media.

I was born in Germany to a military family. We moved to Colorado when I was six months old, and Colorado has been home ever since. After high school, I joined the United States Marine Corps — a decision that took me to North Carolina and sent me overseas to places like Spain, Italy, Africa, Tunisia, Greece, and Israel.

The Marines don't just teach you discipline. They teach you that the mission gets done no matter what. That you don't quit because something is hard. That you find a way, or you make one. I didn't know it at the time, but every single thing I learned in uniform would eventually become the foundation of how I run my businesses.

When my military career ended, I came home to Colorado and had no idea what came next. I tried different paths — steer rocking, bike sales. I was good at selling BMX bikes, mountain bikes, road bikes. I succeeded at it. But I was restless. I was looking for something physical, something that challenged me, something that most people couldn't or wouldn't do.

A friend offered me a night-time gig cleaning carpets. I took it thinking it was temporary. I fell completely in love with it.

I went to work for a carpet cleaning company and stayed for five years. In that time, I didn't just clean carpets — I became obsessed with the science of it. How chemicals interact with fiber. How heat and pressure affect extraction. How the same job done two different ways can produce wildly different results. I studied every technique I could find, worked alongside carpet installers to learn repair and restretching, and started developing my own ideas about how the industry could be done better.

I was winning awards for the companies I worked for. I was the backbone of their customer service. I was the one clients asked for by name. And I kept having ideas — better methods, better chemical combinations, better ways to protect families from the residues that most companies leave behind without a second thought.

But I was an employee. My ideas went into someone else's business. And every time I helped a company get organized, trained their staff, and built their systems — they'd let me go once they thought they had it figured out. Then they'd call me back weeks later when everything fell apart.

That cycle got old. I finally reached the point where I said: I can do this. I should do this. And I'm going to do this.

I want to be honest about what "starting a business" actually looked like for me, because I think too many people imagine entrepreneurs launching with investors and office space and a marketing budget.

I started with a small loan from my parents — David and Jacque Lemieux — and I bought my first carpet cleaning van. It was extremely used. I had no clients. I had no reputation under my own name. I had no safety net. I had just bought a home and was under serious financial pressure. I was terrified.

My dad passed away not long after I started the business. Everything I have built since then, I have built to make him proud. To make my mom proud. To make Jenna proud. That is not a figure of speech — it is the actual fuel that gets me out of bed on the hardest days.

I named the company Absolute Floors & More LLC and opened in 2014. I bought my first company vehicle and started from zero.

I knew I needed credibility fast. I signed up for HomeAdvisor and Angi — not because I needed the leads, but because I needed the third-party validation. I needed homeowners to be able to look me up and see that someone other than me was vouching for the quality of my work.

In my first year, I won Best Carpet Repair and Cleaning Company from both platforms. Then I won it again the next year. And the year after that.

Those awards opened doors. I landed vendor relationships with major real estate companies — RE/MAX, Keller Williams, and others. Real estate agents need reliable, professional vendors they can refer to their clients with confidence. I became that vendor. I became the person they called because they knew I would show up, do the job right, and never embarrass them in front of a client.

I want to be clear about something: I did not win those awards by undercutting competitors or by using high-pressure sales tactics. I have never believed in the door-to-door upsell model that so many carpet cleaning companies rely on. I believe in honest, upfront pricing. I believe in telling people exactly what they need and exactly what it will cost. I believe in doing the job so well that the client calls me back — and refers their friends — without me ever having to ask.

That philosophy is why, today, I don't market at all. The reputation does the work.

I have been in this industry for over 23 years. I have seen things that would genuinely alarm most homeowners if they knew.

Over 80% of carpet cleaning companies use apartment-style cleaning — they pump shampoos and detergents directly into their water lines to speed up the job. It gets them in and out faster. It looks clean on the surface. But it leaves chemical residue deep in the carpet fibers that doesn't come out.

I have personally seen pets chew their own paws off from chemical burns caused by what a carpet cleaning company left behind. I have cleaned up blood from animals at the vet fighting for their lives. I have seen children with persistent skin disorders that nobody ever connected to the residue in their carpet.

Think about that. Think about how many hours a day a toddler spends on the floor. Think about how many pets sleep on the carpet every night.

That is why every chemical I use is neutral and residue-free. That is why I will never rush a job to make the numbers work. That is why I built my process the way I did — not to be faster or cheaper, but to be genuinely, verifiably safer for the families I serve.

Late last year, my business partners Brandon McKim, Bruce Davis, and I filed our first patent pending on our carpet cleaning process.

I want to put that in perspective. We are not millionaires. We are not a corporation with a research and development department. We are a small business in Colorado Springs that has spent years — countless nights without sleep — experimenting, refining, and pushing the boundaries of what this industry can do.

The patent is not just a piece of paper. It is proof that the ideas I have been developing for over two decades are genuinely new. Genuinely better. Genuinely worth protecting. It is one step closer to the goal I have always had: not just to clean carpets, but to change the way the entire industry thinks about what clean actually means.

No other company in Colorado Springs offers what we offer. That is not marketing language. It is a legal fact.

About two years ago, I started a second company with my business partners Brandon McKim and Bruce Davis: Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation. Brandon and Bruce are part owners of Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation alongside me — the same team, the same standards, built for the big restoration jobs that go beyond floor care.

Real Producers recognized both companies in the feature — because the story of Absolute Floors & More and the story of Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation are inseparable. They are two companies that do business together as one.

I don't talk about it much on social media, for reasons I'll keep private. But it is a natural extension of everything I have built — the same commitment to doing the job right, the same refusal to cut corners, the same belief that the people we serve deserve the best we can give them.

Between the two companies, we handle water damage restoration and repair, dry outs, extractions, mold remediation, carpet and pad remediation, carpet cleaning, carpet repair, air duct cleaning, and dryer vent cleaning. We are a complete floor care and restoration operation, and we are growing.

Here is something most of my clients don't know: I am also a musician and DJ.

I have been doing music and DJ gigs my entire working career — through the Marines, through five years at someone else's carpet cleaning company, through building two businesses of my own. Seven days a week, most weeks. People ask me how I do it. Honestly, I have always loved the physical demands of hard work. I have always loved jobs that most people can't or won't do. The music is the same way — it is a craft, it takes discipline, and it is something I genuinely love.

I have always believed that passion is the only currency that doesn't depreciate. No amount of money can buy the feeling of doing something you love at the highest level you're capable of.

Real Producers is not a general consumer publication. It is a magazine read by the top real estate professionals in Colorado Springs — the agents and brokers who close the most transactions, who have the most influence, who refer the most vendors to the most clients.

Being featured in Real Producers is not just a press mention. It is a statement to the real estate community that Absolute Floors & More and Absolute Water Damage and Mitigation — and the team of Nate Lemieux, Brandon McKim, and Bruce Davis behind both — are companies they can trust, refer, and stand behind. It is recognition from the industry that has been one of our most important client bases since the very beginning.

When Jenna found that article and her eyes filled with tears, it wasn't because of the fame or the exposure. It was because she understood what it meant. She understood how many nights we had worked to earn it. She understood that it was proof — real, printed, permanent proof — that the sacrifices had been worth it.

I owe more thank-yous than I could ever write down.

To my parents, David and Jacque Lemieux — thank you for the loan, for the belief, and for raising me to never be afraid of hard work. Dad, I hope I'm making you proud.

To Jenna — you are the reason I keep going on the days when going feels impossible. Your unconditional love and understanding of this life we've chosen is more than priceless. It is everything.

To Brandon and Bruce — thank you for being the kind of partners who show up, every time, no matter what.

To every client who has trusted us with their home, referred us to their friends, or left us a review — you are the reason any of this exists.

I have said this many times, and I will keep saying it: your biggest accomplishments are your failures.

Every time I failed, I learned exactly what not to do next time. Every time something seemed impossible, I found a way to make it possible. The pattern gets clearer with every attempt. The failures stop feeling like endings and start feeling like data.

I have a million more things I want to accomplish. New patents. New awards. New ways to serve this community better. I will never lose that desire.

If you are in Colorado Springs and you want to experience what 23-plus years of genuine passion for this craft looks like in practice — give us a call at (719) 896-6274 or request a free quote. We would love to earn your trust.

Absolute Floors & More LLC — Colorado Springs, CO — Serving a 50-mile radius — IICRC Certified — Patent Pending Cleaning Process