Lents Cleaning and Home Services

After the untimely explosion of your Barcalounger leaves your home in ruin and burn marks, take life’s lemons and make lemoncake. Today’s Groupon gets you $60 worth of design products from Relish for $25. Use the opportunity to redecorate your living space with sustainable, nature-inspired items. If you have spaces to adorn but lack a decorator’s eye, you can put your Groupon toward a one-hour home consultation during which a specialist will visit your place, suggest potential design schemes, and recommend products for a thorough renovation (a $75 value).

One sunny day, Rob Kelley's kids did something characteristically adorable: they decided to make juice from berries they'd picked in the fields. Not so adorably, they spilled the pitcher of just-smashed berries all over one of his dining-room chairs, and the dark purple juice spread across the upholstery. Luckily for the kids, their father owns Sweet's Chem-Dry, and after a session with the company's hot carbonating extraction system, all evidence of the accident disappeared. Kelley documented his success in a small Facebook album.

His team employs the same carbonation system, along with a green, nontoxic cleanser, to lift dirt and debris from carpets, area rugs, and car interiors. Propelled by a truck-mounted machine, the system's microscopic bubbles delve deep into fibers to push grime to the surface, where hot-water extraction flushes it away. Since this system does not leave residue the way cleaning a carpet traditionally or just letting the birds have at it does, carpets stay clean longer. Fabrics dry in up to two hours, and optional protectant shields carpets and upholstery from future stains.

Since 1959, the technicians at Portland Security Alarm have committed themselves to protecting local homes and businesses with advanced equipment. They specialize in designing systems to accommodate the needs of each house, using sensors to detect motion, broken glass, smoke, and carbon monoxide. They also give homeowners the ability to arm or disarm systems with mobile phones and receive frequent updates. Clients can fine-tune the systems to send notifications when children come home from school, if garage doors have been open too long, or if the house itself has posted an update on its social-networking profile.

A third-generation handyman, Craftworks Home Repair & Improvement’s owner Jason Morey employs steady hands and a steely vision as he paints, repairs, and remodels customers’ homes. Specializing in both indoor and outdoor work, he touches up and transforms areas as big as the backyard deck, as nuanced as the electrical system, and as high-tech as the underground escape pod. Kitchens and bathrooms can be renovated with new fixtures or rebuilt walls, while custom shelving units, fences, and outdoor play structures can be installed to result in safe, upgraded households. Jason also focuses on smaller-picture tasks such as painting, glass repair, and garden work.

Steve Varga—who can be seen on the company YouTube channel and blog waxing poetic on the glory of stone patios and the evils of bronze birch borers—brings nearly 30 years of experience to his post as chief horticulturist at ProGrass. Here, he leads a team of lawnsmiths in all manner of yard-related tasks, from landscaping design to lawn mowing to sprinkler repair. They draw from their northwestern knowledge to draft modern patio designs, dole out gardening tips, and trim hedges to look as well groomed as the queen's troll dolls. He and the crew work under the same local, independent owners who founded the company in 1978, focusing on preserving the environment by using natural business methods, organic products, and water-efficiency techniques.

Family-owned Winkel Carpet & Tile restores home to their just-moved-in glory with a range of quality, conscientious cleaning services. Call in the brigade of bacteria busters to clean tile and grout at $1 per square foot of flooring and $2 per square foot of countertop, wall, and shower space. Winkel's wizards use allergy-free, eco-friendly products. The sanitizing slurry swipes away grease, bacteria, and colonies of sea monkeys with more than 800 pounds of pressure, precisely targeted using eco-friendly products, truck-mounted equipment, and a voracious vacuum. Winkel tackles a variety of tile types, including ceramic, quarry, and terra cotta, and the company recommends regular maintenance to keep tiles friendly to eyes and ice-skating sock feet.