Chad started it. Chet finished it.

Carpet Tech was started by Chad Pharies — Chet's older brother — who began cleaning carpets between classes at Texas Tech to make money and get himself through college. What started as a side job became a real business, and as Chet watched his brother build it, his admiration grew.

Then in December of 1995, Chad was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He was 23 years old. When he became too ill to work, the family sold the business — a carpet cleaning van — to a fireman in Lubbock. Chad passed away in September of 1996.

Chet was at Texas Tech on a football scholarship when his brother died. Devastated by the loss, he left school. He had no direction and no plan.

Then the fireman called. He offered to sell the van back. Chet bought it. He restarted Carpet Tech out of his garage in 1996 — not because he had a business plan, but because it was something to do, and because it was his brother's. In the beginning, he had no plans to grow it. It was just something to keep himself busy.

Then he began to dream. He wanted to finish what Chad started — using his brother's vision as the foundation for what Carpet Tech could become.