About Us
My name has proudly been on my business since 1988. Starting out in carpet cleaning, we evolved into tile cleaning/repair and then transitioned into Travertine and natural stone finishing. Not satisfied with the standard and available products and tools to finish Marble, and almost nothing available specifically for Travertine, I researched and developed my own unique abrasive system. My system and our powerful quality equipment provides great results in sometimes less than half the time than our top competitors.
Miles Koch:
Director of Field Operations, hired in 2003. Starting with Tom at 19 years old, Miles had already held a manager position at a movie theater in his hometown of Lake Havasu, AZ. He came to Tempe as a college student and began working immediately while attending school. Our confidence in Miles has grown with every square foot of stone he has finished. At over 1,000,000 square feet, that’s a lot of confidence! He began to lead our crew in 2006 with superior attention to detail ensuring excellent results for each customer.
Ray Saenz:
Foreman, hired in 2005. Ray was a good friend and neighbor since 1999 and we are so glad he finally came on board to work for us. After one year in the field with Tom and Miles, Ray’s knowledge and skills have grown to the point that he also leads jobs for us on a regular basis. Ray has at least 500,000 square feet of stone experience and much more to come.
Ryan Allen:
Senior Crew member, hired in 2005. Ryan, the son of a longtime friend, joined us at 19 years old. Ryan has grown into a valued member of our team because of his dedication and hard work. Ryan’s abilities enabled us to form our core crew and take on more business while maintaining very high standards. Ryan has also reached 500,00 square feet of stone experience. He is the proud father of Abby, born in August 2007.
Glen Malm:
Crew Member, hired in 2007. A good friend of Miles and a good neighbor to us, Glen is the latest addition to the crew. Also relocating from Lake Havasu, Glen proved to be a great worker right from the start and is the reason our crew is so finely tuned. Adding Glen has increased our attention to detail and provides for even better results for our customers.
Tom & Amy Baker
Tom is a Mesa, Arizona native who founded this business back in 1988 with little more than hope and a great outlook. It evolved from a carpet cleaning service to the specialized service of Travertine and natural stone care. Tom’s focus has always been to provide the best service, using the best tools, at a fair price, and always with honor and honesty.
Amy is a Michigan native and ASU grad. After many years in the local television business, she joined Tom in 2003 to help grow and organize the family business. They are blessed with one awesome son, Griffin. Tom & Amy run all the in-home estimates usually as a team and hope to meet you soon!
Most jobs we do are effectively staffed with a 3 person crew. We feel adding a fourth to anything more than a small job increases our attention to detail and provides the best results possible for the customer.
My local business is celebrating its 20th year in 2008. I built my company with an honest competitive spirit. I started in carpet cleaning with an electric carpet cleaning machine. It was called the "Super Duper Deluxe." You would think that would have enough power to clean carpets with a name like that, not so. So I installed the most powerful electric motor available that can be run off one standard plug without throwing the breaker. I had to run cords to two different parts of the house to avoid throwing a breaker. At that time gasoline powered machines were $7,000-$15,000. The $7,000 machine didn’t have as much power as my electric machine and part of the reason I couldn’t afford $15,000 was my business was based on the best quality work and not up selling extra (sometimes unnecessary) services and cleaning products. I found an old gasoline machine that was one of the first prototypes for the carpet cleaning machines powered by a car motor. It was under a dusty old tarp. When I looked under the tarp seeing that it was powered by a car motor, I realized this was the power I needed to do the best carpet job. I told the man I wanted it and he said no it’s too old and has problems. I said "Perfect it’s got to be a good deal then, right?" He practically gave me the machine and I rebuilt it personally. It served well with the power I needed for over 10 years. My Power Clean carpet cleaning system was very simple but the right way to do the job. Aggressive chemicals to clean, heated water to rinse and a powerful machine to extract as much water as possible.
Now the best machines are $25,000. I have two of them.
About 10 years ago I started repairing, cleaning, and sealing Ceramic tile and grout. This new service quickly took over as our main service. As Travertine became more popular I started attending stone restoration certification classes. Most of these were powder systems. Powdered abrasives have specific abilities but are not able to completely give the finisher what’s needed to do the job properly, especially with Travertine. So as I researched other systems I found that there was a very poor selection of products for the stone finishing industry. I was very honest with my first Travertine customers I explained that my knowledge and the ability of the abrasive processes were limited and so I was limited as well. So I started researching abrasives from around the world for all different industries, not just the ones for the Stone finishing industry. I installed Travertine in my barn and started experimenting with different abrasive processes that had nothing to do with Stone finishing as well as everything available for Marble and stone. No expense was spared! This actually worked very well. We discovered several different custom abrasive processes and over the years this open attitude has never ceased. After more than 1,000,000 ft.² of work done for happy customers, I feel we have the most complete Travertine finishing system in the world.
That’s my story. We hope to make you a happy customer too.
Tom Baker/Owner
Bonded / Insured / Contractor License AZROC 237989 / BBB Member
Competition and honesty are the driving forces behind our success.
We compete on every level:
- Expertise: Our specific abrasive system developed just for Travertine & natural stone
- Equipment: Powerful truck-mounted equipment insures very thorough clean up, crucial to the finishing process. Shop-vacs and mops/buckets cannot compare!
- Professional Crew: Knowledgeable, experienced, well-trained, and well-paid crew
- Customer Service: Clear communication of client expectations and always striving for fully satisfied, happy customers.
- Competitive Rates: We offer extremely fair pricing and always expert results.
The Baker's Travertine Power Clean Team
Miles Koch:Director of Field Operations, hired in 2003. Starting with Tom at 19 years old, Miles had already held a manager position at a movie theater in his hometown of Lake Havasu, AZ. He came to Tempe as a college student and began working immediately while attending school. Our confidence in Miles has grown with every square foot of stone he has finished. At over 1,000,000 square feet, that’s a lot of confidence! He began to lead our crew in 2006 with superior attention to detail ensuring excellent results for each customer.
Ray Saenz:Foreman, hired in 2005. Ray was a good friend and neighbor since 1999 and we are so glad he finally came on board to work for us. After one year in the field with Tom and Miles, Ray’s knowledge and skills have grown to the point that he also leads jobs for us on a regular basis. Ray has at least 500,000 square feet of stone experience and much more to come.
Ryan Allen:Senior Crew member, hired in 2005. Ryan, the son of a longtime friend, joined us at 19 years old. Ryan has grown into a valued member of our team because of his dedication and hard work. Ryan’s abilities enabled us to form our core crew and take on more business while maintaining very high standards. Ryan has also reached 500,00 square feet of stone experience. He is the proud father of Abby, born in August 2007.
Glen Malm:Crew Member, hired in 2007. A good friend of Miles and a good neighbor to us, Glen is the latest addition to the crew. Also relocating from Lake Havasu, Glen proved to be a great worker right from the start and is the reason our crew is so finely tuned. Adding Glen has increased our attention to detail and provides for even better results for our customers.
Tom & Amy Baker
Tom is a Mesa, Arizona native who founded this business back in 1988 with little more than hope and a great outlook. It evolved from a carpet cleaning service to the specialized service of Travertine and natural stone care. Tom’s focus has always been to provide the best service, using the best tools, at a fair price, and always with honor and honesty.
Amy is a Michigan native and ASU grad. After many years in the local television business, she joined Tom in 2003 to help grow and organize the family business. They are blessed with one awesome son, Griffin. Tom & Amy run all the in-home estimates usually as a team and hope to meet you soon!
Most jobs we do are effectively staffed with a 3 person crew. We feel adding a fourth to anything more than a small job increases our attention to detail and provides the best results possible for the customer.
BUSINESS HISTORY... IF YOU'VE GOT TIME ON YOUR HANDS...
My local business is celebrating its 20th year in 2008. I built my company with an honest competitive spirit. I started in carpet cleaning with an electric carpet cleaning machine. It was called the "Super Duper Deluxe." You would think that would have enough power to clean carpets with a name like that, not so. So I installed the most powerful electric motor available that can be run off one standard plug without throwing the breaker. I had to run cords to two different parts of the house to avoid throwing a breaker. At that time gasoline powered machines were $7,000-$15,000. The $7,000 machine didn’t have as much power as my electric machine and part of the reason I couldn’t afford $15,000 was my business was based on the best quality work and not up selling extra (sometimes unnecessary) services and cleaning products. I found an old gasoline machine that was one of the first prototypes for the carpet cleaning machines powered by a car motor. It was under a dusty old tarp. When I looked under the tarp seeing that it was powered by a car motor, I realized this was the power I needed to do the best carpet job. I told the man I wanted it and he said no it’s too old and has problems. I said "Perfect it’s got to be a good deal then, right?" He practically gave me the machine and I rebuilt it personally. It served well with the power I needed for over 10 years. My Power Clean carpet cleaning system was very simple but the right way to do the job. Aggressive chemicals to clean, heated water to rinse and a powerful machine to extract as much water as possible.Now the best machines are $25,000. I have two of them.
About 10 years ago I started repairing, cleaning, and sealing Ceramic tile and grout. This new service quickly took over as our main service. As Travertine became more popular I started attending stone restoration certification classes. Most of these were powder systems. Powdered abrasives have specific abilities but are not able to completely give the finisher what’s needed to do the job properly, especially with Travertine. So as I researched other systems I found that there was a very poor selection of products for the stone finishing industry. I was very honest with my first Travertine customers I explained that my knowledge and the ability of the abrasive processes were limited and so I was limited as well. So I started researching abrasives from around the world for all different industries, not just the ones for the Stone finishing industry. I installed Travertine in my barn and started experimenting with different abrasive processes that had nothing to do with Stone finishing as well as everything available for Marble and stone. No expense was spared! This actually worked very well. We discovered several different custom abrasive processes and over the years this open attitude has never ceased. After more than 1,000,000 ft.² of work done for happy customers, I feel we have the most complete Travertine finishing system in the world.
That’s my story. We hope to make you a happy customer too.
Tom Baker/Owner
Bonded / Insured / Contractor License AZROC 237989 / BBB Member