Quick Comparison #
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Pro-Care of Nashville | IICRC Certified Firm, WoolSafe trained rug staff, family-owned since the 1999 ownership transition | Textile and hard-surface cleaning across Middle Tennessee with a focus on wool rugs, upholstery, tile, and stone |
| Stanley Steemer of Nashville | Asthma and Allergy Friendly Certified parent brand, hot-water-extraction equipment, Smyrna franchise serving Davidson County | Residential and commercial carpet, hardwood, tile, and air-duct cleaning under the national Stanley Steemer system |
| COIT Cleaning and Restoration of Nashville | IICRC-trained technicians, locally owned franchise of a 1950-founded brand, multi-service cleaning and restoration | Carpet, upholstery, tile, hardwood, air-duct, and restoration work for homes and businesses in the Greater Nashville area |
1. Pro-Care of Nashville #
- Address: 720 Fesslers Lane, Nashville, TN 37210
- Phone: (615) 221-4100
- Founder / Owner: Jim Kilpatrick (founder, 1995); John R. Browning III (President, purchased February 1999)
- Operating Since: 1995 (31 years)
- Credentials: IICRC Certified Firm, WoolSafe-trained rug care staff, Master and Journeyman Cleaning Technician certifications referenced on the firm’s IICRC page
- Service area: Nashville and surrounding areas
- Industries served / Specialties: Carpet, area rug, oriental rug, upholstery, tile, stone, and fabric protection for residential and light commercial clients
- Website: Pro-Care of Nashville
How Pro-Care Was Built in Middle Tennessee #
Nashville resident Jim Kilpatrick established the practice in 1995 after the carpet care distributor Bridgepoint opened a Nashville branch in January of that year, which gave him local access to professional cleaning products. The first paying customer was served in June 1995, and by the end of 2000 the client list had reportedly grown past 800 households and businesses. In February 1999, John R. Browning III, who had grown up working in his father’s carpet care business and had founded Browning Carpet Cleaning Inc. in July 1997, purchased the practice and folded his own client base into the Pro-Care name.
WoolSafe and IICRC Standards in Practice #
The company is listed on the WoolSafe Academy locations directory and on the WoolSafe Organization’s cleaner company registry, which is relevant for owners of wool, silk, or hand-knotted rugs because the WoolSafe network reviews chemistry and process specifically for protein-fiber textiles. The shop’s IICRC page describes the practice as a certified firm, which under IICRC rules requires continuing education hours, written customer-service standards, and adherence to the Institute’s ANSI-accredited carpet cleaning standard. The shop combines these textile certifications with hard-surface cleaning for tile, stone, and grout.
Service Mix Beyond Wall-to-Wall Carpet #
Beyond standard wall-to-wall carpet cleaning, the company offers in-plant rug cleaning, on-site upholstery cleaning, tile and grout work, natural stone cleaning and sealing, and fabric protection treatments. Rug intake is handled at the Fesslers Lane facility in Nashville, with the shop publishing dedicated service pages for nearby submarkets such as Franklin and Brentwood. Office hours are listed as Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
https://procareofnashville.com/
2. Stanley Steemer of Nashville #
- Address: 200 Weakley Lane, Suite B, Smyrna, TN 37167
- Phone: (615) 360-5155
- Founder / Owner: Jack A. Bates (founder of the Stanley Steemer brand, 1947, Dublin, Ohio); Stanley Steemer of Nashville, LLC operates as a franchise of the parent company
- Operating Since: 1947 (parent brand, 79 years); the Stanley Steemer of Nashville franchise has been on file with the Better Business Bureau since 1994 per BBB profile data
- Credentials: Asthma and Allergy Friendly Certified cleaning service (parent brand certification awarded in February 2013), hot-water-extraction process, member of the national Stanley Steemer system covering 49 states
- Service area: Nashville and surrounding areas
- Industries served / Specialties: Carpet, upholstery, tile and grout, hardwood floor, area rug, and air-duct cleaning, plus water-damage restoration, for residential and commercial clients
- Website: Stanley Steemer
Brand Origin and the Nashville Franchise #
Stanley Steemer was founded in 1947 by Jack A. Bates as the Jack Bates Carpet Cleaning Company in central Ohio. In 1970 Jack’s son Wesley joined and the two built their own truck-mounted steam cleaner, the unit that gave the brand its name, and the entity was incorporated as Stanley Steemer International, Inc. in 1972. The Smyrna-based Stanley Steemer of Nashville franchise covers the Greater Nashville carpet cleaning territory listed on the parent site under location code 996.
What the Hot-Water-Extraction Process Looks Like #
The parent brand built the modern truck-mounted hot-water-extraction approach, in which water heated inside a van-mounted boiler is forced through a wand and immediately recovered with strong vacuum suction. The Nashville location offers the same residential menu as other corporate and franchised units, including wall-to-wall carpet, area rug, tile and grout, hardwood, leather and fabric upholstery, and HVAC duct cleaning. Stanley Steemer’s professional cleaning service holds the Asthma and Allergy Friendly Certification, a program co-administered by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and Allergy Standards Limited.
Coverage Across Davidson and Rutherford Counties #
The Smyrna address sits just southeast of Nashville along the I-24 corridor in Rutherford County and serves Davidson and Rutherford county neighborhoods from a single dispatch hub. National brand reach means residential customers can book online through the corporate portal or by phone, with route-based scheduling that is common in the Stanley Steemer franchise model.
https://www.stanleysteemer.com/locations/TN/Nashville/996
3. COIT Cleaning and Restoration of Nashville #
- Address: 1182 Antioch Pike, Nashville, TN 37211
- Phone: (615) 781-9797
- Founder / Owner: Lou Kearn (founder of the COIT brand, 1950, San Francisco); the Nashville office is a locally owned franchise of COIT Services, Inc.
- Operating Since: 1950 (parent brand, 76 years); COIT began franchising in 1964
- Credentials: IICRC-trained technicians per the COIT Nashville carpet cleaning services page, COITGuard stain-protection product line, full-satisfaction guarantee maintained since the brand’s founding
- Service area: Nashville and surrounding areas including Brentwood, Franklin, Hendersonville, Murfreesboro, Antioch, Belle Meade, Gallatin, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, Smyrna, Goodlettsville, and Nolensville per the COIT Nashville locator
- Industries served / Specialties: Carpet, upholstery, area rug, drapery, tile and grout, natural stone, hardwood, concrete, and air-duct cleaning, plus fire, smoke, mold, and water-damage restoration, for residential and commercial clients
- Website: COIT Cleaning and Restoration
A 1950 San Francisco Brand With a Nashville Office #
The parent company was founded in 1950 at the base of San Francisco’s Coit Tower by Lou Kearn, who patented a drapery-cleaning process backed by a satisfaction guarantee in 1952. The brand expanded into carpet and upholstery cleaning in 1971, added truck-mounted equipment in 1975, and began offering certified HVAC air-duct cleaning in 1992. The Nashville franchise operates from 1182 Antioch Pike in Davidson County and serves the broader metro listed in the COIT locator.
IICRC-Trained Technicians and the COITGuard Line #
The COIT Nashville carpet cleaning page describes technicians as trained via IICRC standards, which means they are taught to identify fiber type, apply pH-balanced pre-spray, and use temperature and dwell time appropriate for synthetic versus protein fibers. The company applies its proprietary COITGuard stain protector, a coating the brand markets as non-toxic and water- and oil-repellent for wool, olefin, and nylon carpets. Deodorizing additives are available for pet, mildew, and smoke odors.
Multi-Service Coverage From One Local Branch #
Because the same Nashville office handles carpet, hardwood, tile, stone, drapery, air ducts, and restoration, owners of older homes around Belle Meade, Hillsboro Village, and East Nashville can schedule multiple line items in one visit. The branch also handles water-damage and mold-remediation calls 24 hours a day, adding an emergency-restoration line to the standard carpet-and-upholstery menu.
https://www.coit.com/nashville
Reference Notes #
The two credentials that matter most in residential carpet cleaning in Tennessee are IICRC certification and product approvals from the Carpet and Rug Institute. The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification is an ANSI-accredited standards body that publishes the S100 standard for professional carpet cleaning and runs both technician-level certifications and a Certified Firm program that requires written customer-service standards and continuing education. The Carpet and Rug Institute, headquartered in Dalton, Georgia, runs the Seal of Approval program that tests cleaning solutions, equipment, and service providers for fiber safety and soil removal. All three firms above either reference IICRC training directly on their Nashville-facing pages or, in the case of Pro-Care, list a Certified Firm designation.
Cleaning chemistry is the other axis Nashville homeowners often ask about. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency runs the Safer Choice program, which labels cleaning products that meet a defined ingredient-safety standard, and the EPA also maintains the Design for the Environment marks on antimicrobials. Truck-mounted hot-water-extraction systems, the method used by Stanley Steemer of Nashville and COIT Cleaning and Restoration of Nashville, heat water inside the van and recover most of the moisture by vacuum, which is the method described in the IICRC S100 standard as one of two primary residential approaches. Low-moisture and carbonation-based methods are the other category and are common with WoolSafe-approved chemistry on wool and silk fibers.
Tennessee consumer protection for service contracting falls under the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, Division of Consumer Affairs. Carpet cleaning is not separately licensed at the state level in Tennessee the way contractor trades are, which is why third-party credentials like IICRC, WoolSafe, and CRI Seal of Approval do meaningful work in the market: they substitute for state licensure as a signal of training. Homeowners can verify business standing through the Tennessee Secretary of State business filings search and the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee.
Selection Methodology #
The three firms in this guide were selected from publicly verifiable Nashville carpet cleaners with at least a decade of trading history in Middle Tennessee, a physical Davidson or Rutherford County address, a working phone number listed on the company’s own domain, and at least one independent credential (IICRC Certified Firm status, IICRC technician training, WoolSafe listing, or an equivalent parent-brand certification). Founder names, founding years, addresses, phone numbers, and service descriptions were drawn from each firm’s own website and corroborated against the Better Business Bureau profile, the WoolSafe directory, or the parent brand’s corporate page; any data point that could not be sourced to one of those was omitted rather than estimated.
Frequently Asked Questions #
Q: How often should carpets be professionally cleaned in a Nashville home?
A: Most carpet manufacturers and the Carpet and Rug Institute recommend professional cleaning every 12 to 18 months for typical households, and every 6 to 12 months for homes with pets, children, or heavy foot traffic. Manufacturer warranties on residential carpet often require a documented professional cleaning record.
Q: What does IICRC certification actually verify?
A: The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification is an ANSI-accredited standards body. A technician-level IICRC certification verifies that the technician passed a course and exam in a specific category (carpet cleaning, water damage, upholstery, and so on). A Certified Firm designation adds firm-level requirements including written customer-service standards, complaint resolution procedures, and continuing education.
Q: Is hot-water extraction the same thing as steam cleaning?
A: In common usage, yes. Truck-mounted hot-water extraction uses heated water and detergent delivered under pressure, then recovered by vacuum. The water in the wand is hot but not technically steam. The method is described in the IICRC S100 standard as one of the primary residential carpet cleaning approaches.
Q: How can a Nashville homeowner verify a carpet cleaning company before booking?
A: Start with the firm’s IICRC certification status at iicrc.org, then check the Tennessee Secretary of State business filings to confirm the LLC or corporation is in good standing, and review the Better Business Bureau of Middle Tennessee profile. For wool or silk rugs, the WoolSafe Organization maintains a public directory of approved cleaners.
Editorial Note #
This guide was published on 2026-05-11 and reflects research current as of that date. Verify licenses, phone numbers, and current business status before engaging any firm.