After-disaster help is their expertise

Rain was still falling in Lewiston when the telephone started ringing at ServiceMaster after a storm dumped more than a half-inch of rain on the town in less than 30 minutes.

The business received 42 requests to repair water damage in 23 minutes and handled 28, said Colleen Grittner, who owns the business with her husband, Mitch Grittner.

The customers ServiceMaster helped benefited from decades of experience the Grittners have accumulated in the industry. They have owned Lewiston’s ServiceMaster location since 2011 when they purchased it from her parents, John and Jane Burke.

The business is part of a national chain with more than 500 locations in the United States that cleans carpets, upholstery, windows, homes and floors. It also does restorations of homes and businesses after fires and floods.

They recently expanded by acquiring Moscow’s ServiceMaster in a deal that allows them to clean and polish floors made from hard materials such as tile and linoleum. The addition of the service is important because hard surfaces are increasingly replacing carpet, Colleen Grittner said.

What happened the day of the deluge demonstrates what the Grittners find tough and rewarding about their business.

ServiceMaster is on call 24 hours a day and factors out of their control, such as weather, determine how busy the schedule is.

The dedication and talent of their staff make it possible for the business to handle that unpredictability, she said.

What’s gratifying is the role they play in helping their customers, who may face one of the worst days of their lives, Grittner said.

ServiceMaster takes care of details that people don’t realize need to be handled until they’re confronted with a flood or fire at their home or business.

Those tasks often include identifying items that might be exposed to more damage if they remain in an unsecured building, removing them, placing them in storage, cleaning them and returning them once other restoration work is complete.

“We like being able to provide relief to customers that are in crisis after a flood or smoke damage to their home or business,” she said.

That work is an extension of the skills Grittner has been learning since she was 13 years old when her parents acquired the business.

Her first job at ServiceMaster involved fire restoration. She would clean soot from everything from dresser drawers to cabinet interiors by wiping them with a patented chemical ServiceMaster has for that purpose.

Over the years, she has explored other careers. From 1996 to 2001, the Grittners owned ServiceMaster Janitorial before selling that business.

She attended nursing school. She also worked as a bookkeeper and human resources director at Rivercrest, a former Lewiston in-patient facility that treated people with mental health issues and drug and alcohol addictions.

She and her husband returned to ServiceMaster, partly because of the work-life balance it offers.

Her two youngest sons, Tre, 17, and Dash, 15, do the same job she did as a teenager for the business.

They also expel water using a wand that sucks and pumps liquid from rooms, and also do carpet and upholstery cleaning.

“We decided we wanted to continue in the family business, which gave us the flexibility to be with our family most of the time,” Grittner said.

Her sons’ experience opens the possibility that the business might one day be in the hands of a third generation, she said.

“All three of our boys grew up in the family business,” Grittner said.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.