ShoutOut Colorado Featured Us — Here''s Our Story

We were recently featured by ShoutOut Colorado — a publication dedicated to spotlighting the small businesses and local entrepreneurs that make Colorado communities great. They sat down with me, Nathaniel Lemieux, to talk about how Absolute Floors & More came to be, what drives us every single day, and why we do things differently than every other carpet cleaning company in Colorado Springs.

Here's the full story, in my own words.

I know — sounds crazy coming from someone who's been in the carpet cleaning industry for over 23 years.

I watched a lot of businesses thrive and a lot of them fall apart. I saw business owners struggle in ways that genuinely broke my heart, and honestly, it made me terrified to ever try running my own company. The risk felt impossible. The numbers felt overwhelming. The idea of betting everything on myself felt like a gamble I wasn't ready to take.

But after more than two decades in the field, something shifted.

I had gone to school for multiple trades — carpet cleaning, flood damage restoration, upholstery cleaning, carpet repair, tile and grout, dryer vent cleaning, and more. I started to realize I knew more than most of the business owners I was working for. I was developing my own methods. My own ways of connecting with customers without ever feeling like a salesman. My own ideas for using equipment and chemicals at a higher level than anyone around me.

I was the backbone of customer service and the actual work at every company I touched. But I had zero confidence in the business side — the numbers, the ownership, the risk. I was an amazing manager. I just didn't believe I could be the owner.

That belief almost cost me everything.

When I finally decided to go for it, the timing couldn't have been worse.

I had just bought a home. I was under serious financial pressure. I was subcontracting for other businesses — helping them organize, train employees, and build systems — and then getting let go once they thought they had it figured out. They'd call me back weeks later when everything fell apart without me.

That cycle got old fast.

I was extremely good at something and had no real future doing it for someone else. I was close to walking away from the industry entirely. But every time I thought about it, my passion kept pulling me back to carpet cleaning. There was something about walking into a home that looked hopeless and walking out leaving it genuinely clean and safe — that feeling never got old.

So I started. Scared. Underfunded. With everything on the line.

My parents, David and Jacque Lemieux, helped me buy my first carpet cleaning van. That van was the beginning of everything. My dad passed away, and I carry him with me on every single job. Everything I do is to make both of my parents proud. He taught me to be honest and to never be afraid of hard work. My mom taught me to be the best person I can be — in business and in life.

And my wife, Jenna Lemieux — she has stood behind me through the hardest times and the best times. She is my biggest supporter and my biggest encouragement to keep going. I would not be here without her.

Here's the truth that the carpet cleaning industry doesn't want you to know.

Over 80% of carpet cleaning companies use apartment-style cleaning — they pump shampoos and detergents into their water lines to get in and out of homes faster. It's not residue-free. It's not safe. And most homeowners have no idea it's happening.

I have personally seen pets chew their own paws off from chemical burns left behind in carpet fibers after a "professional" cleaning. I've cleaned up blood from animals at the vet fighting for their lives because of what a carpet cleaning company left behind in someone's home.

Think about how many children visit doctors for unexplained skin disorders and nobody ever asks: how were your carpets last cleaned?

Think about the babies crawling on those floors. The dogs sleeping on them. The families breathing the air that rises from those fibers every single day.

That's why I built my process the way I did.

Every chemical we use is neutral and completely safe. No up-sells. No tricks. No dangerous residues. No shampoos pumped into your water lines to save us time at the expense of your family's health. Just a genuinely clean, genuinely safe home — at a price that's actually affordable.

I'm also one of the very few people in this industry who can do it all:

• ✅ Carpet Cleaning (Patent Pending Process)
• ✅ Carpet Repair & Restretching
• ✅ Air Duct Cleaning
• ✅ Upholstery Cleaning
• ✅ Tile & Grout Cleaning
• ✅ Dryer Vent Cleaning
• ✅ Flood Damage Restoration & Mitigation

Most companies specialize in one thing. We do everything — and we do it right.

Here's something most people don't know: carpet repair is one of the hardest skills in this entire industry to learn. There are almost no good teachers. If you mess it up, you're buying the carpet you were trying to fix.

I learned the hard way.

For years, I was using a knee kicker to stretch carpet. I was destroying my knees and my body, not knowing there was a better tool. Nobody told me about the power stretcher. When I finally got my hands on one, it changed everything. It's basically a carpet car jack. It does the job right, without the pain, and it's the actual industry standard — a knee kicker alone isn't even accepted for a manufacturer warranty installation.

I spent years making mistakes, learning from carpet installers on the side, piecing together skills from every person I could watch and every job I could take. Eventually I got good enough that a high-profile company offered me 40% commission on every repair job — roughly $40 an hour when most people in the apartment industry were making a fraction of that.

I didn't even know carpet repair could pay like that.

That realization — that I had a rare, genuinely valuable skill set that almost nobody else in Colorado Springs had — was the push I needed to go out on my own.

When I opened Absolute Floors & More, I needed to prove my ideas worked.

I signed up for HomeAdvisor and Angi — not because I needed the leads, but because I needed the credibility. I needed third-party proof that what I was doing was different and better.

I won Best Carpet Repair and Cleaning Company from both platforms my first year. And then the next year. And the year after that.

Those awards became leverage. They opened doors to bigger clients and better contracts. They gave homeowners a reason to trust a new name in a crowded market.

And now? I don't even market anymore. The reputation does the work.

There are over 600 carpet cleaning businesses in most cities across the country. The fact that we're still here, still growing, still getting referrals without paid advertising — that says everything about the quality and the honesty we bring to every single job.

After years of refining my methods, I developed a cleaning process unlike anything else in Colorado Springs — and I patent pending.

This isn't a marketing claim. It's a U.S. patent. A process that penetrates deeper into carpet fibers, extracts more contaminants, and leaves your home genuinely cleaner and healthier than any standard hot water extraction method.

No other company in Colorado Springs can offer this. It's exclusive to Absolute Floors & More.

When Real Producers Magazine featured us in their April 2025 issue — the publication read by Colorado Springs' top real estate professionals — this was one of the things they highlighted. Not just the awards. Not just the certifications. The fact that we built something nobody else has.

A lot of companies claim to be "certified." Very few actually are.

IICRC stands for the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification — the gold standard in our industry. Being an IICRC Certified Firm means we've met rigorous standards for training, equipment, and business practices. It means when we walk into your home, we know exactly what we're doing and why.

It also means we're accountable. If something goes wrong, there's a governing body that holds us to a standard. That accountability is rare in this industry — and it's something I'm proud of.

I served in the United States Marine Corps, and that service shaped everything about how I run this business.

The discipline. The attention to detail. The commitment to doing the job right the first time, every time. The refusal to cut corners even when nobody's watching. The respect for the people I'm serving.

When you hire Absolute Floors & More, you're hiring a veteran-owned business that treats your home with the same respect and precision I brought to my service. That's not a tagline. That's who I am.

There will never be a perfect time. There will never be enough money. There will always be doubts and competition and people telling you it can't be done that way.

Start anyway. Anywhere. Anytime.

Learn to accept failure as a positive. Take every mistake as a lesson in what not to do next time. Be honest with yourself so you can be honest with your clients. Be proud of your work. And give yourself credit when you earn it.

You are the only one who can take nothing and make it into something.

I started with a used van, a prayer, and a skill set I'd spent 20 years building. Today I run two companies, hold a U.S. patent pending, and serve Colorado Springs families with a level of care and expertise that I'm genuinely proud of.

That's the story ShoutOut Colorado told. And it's the story we live every single day.

We're proud and grateful to have been featured by ShoutOut Colorado. You can read the original interview at shoutoutcolorado.com.

If you're in Colorado Springs or anywhere within our 50-mile service area and want to experience what 23 years of real expertise, a patent pending process, and a genuine commitment to your family's safety feels like — give us a call.

📞 (719) 896-6274

Or request a free quote online. No pressure. No up-sells. Just honest work from a team that actually cares.