Stephen "Dusty" Roberts is one of the most experienced and qualified area rug carpet cleaners in Canada.
He has completed the Master Rug Cleaner program with the Oriental Rug College Program, he is a Senior Fellow of Academy of Oriental Rug (AOR), is IICRC certified, and Wool Safe Certified.
He is an Industry Speaker at conventions, Rug Cleaning Trainer and Business Coach. Dusty has traveled all over the USA and to Australia, England, Turkey and many other European countries learning and teaching about area rug history, identification and proper cleaning.
He is a noted industry authority and oriental rug appraiser.
2019 Chamber of Commerce Winner
Business of The Year (1-10 Employees)
All About Luv-A-Rug As Told By Stephen "Dusty" Roberts
2018 BBB Triple Award Winner
All About Luv-A-Rug & How It Got Started
At the tender age of 7 years, little Stephen Roberts’ area rug cleaning career began. Steve’s father, Gordon, had renovated the family home earlier that year, installing a stylish gold shag carpet. One day Gordon decided that the year old shag needed a cleaning. Armed with soap, pail and brush, Gordon started the job. After much insistence from an enthusiastic Steve, however, he soon handed the job over.
Steve was exceedingly thrilled with his handiwork initially. Unfortunately, he was shocked to see his hard work was for naught, as within one week the luster was lost and the rug was dark and crusty from soap build-up residue trapping dirt. Thus, the seeds of perfection were sown in a pursuit of the perfect rug-cleaning job.
Soon there after, the entrepreneurial Gordon, while scanning ads for new business opportunities in the back of a popular mechanic’s magazine, spied one promoting an amazing new carpet-cleaning machine. The machine turned out to work so well, (no more dark and crusty gold shag carpets), Gordon saw the immediate opportunity to supplement the family’s income.
And so the argosy began not long afterward (1972) wherein the elder Mr. Roberts began a carpet cleaning business. Steve still remembers inserting flyers into neighborhood mailboxes, getting that first client, and going on the first carpet-cleaning job with his dad. What still stands out in Steve’s memory is the fact that first customer wanted to have just the wall-to-wall carpets cleaned, but insisted on sending her prized oriental living room rug out to a specialty rug cleaner.
From that day on, Steve swore they would never lose another rug-cleaning job. To do that, Steve undertook an educational process that continues to this day about how to provide the ultimate restorative rug cleaning service. In 1986, Steve struck out on his own to form Lug-A-Rug, specializing in Victoria’s first in-plant restorative rug cleaning and repair service. Since then, Lug-A-Rug has been the preferred choice of Victorian’s who care about the health and appearance of their prized oriental rugs.
As of January 1 2004, the decision was made to change the name to better reflect their care and passion for prized oriental, Persian and other valued rugs that Steve and his team share with their customers. However, some people still insist it had something to do with Luggie moving away to spend more time with his family, but we’ll leave that debate to the historians.
Luv-A-Rug Services Inc.
www.luvarug.com
Address:
445 Beta St (off Alpha St)
Victoria BC V8Z 1A9
Phone: 250-590-6210