After roughly five decades cleaning and repairing carpets across the Upstate of South Carolina, Mike Bryan retired — and hand-picked Adam and Samantha Proehl of Foothills Carpet Care to look after the customers he spent a lifetime earning. Here is the story, in his words and theirs.
When a tradesman spends his entire working life building trust with a community, retirement raises a question that has nothing to do with money: who will take care of the people who counted on him?
For Mike Bryan, the answer was Adam and Samantha Proehl of Foothills Carpet Care. Mike began working in the Upstate carpet business in 1965 and cleaned and repaired carpets in and around Greenville, South Carolina until he was 81 years old. When it came time to step away, he did not simply sell off his equipment and disappear. He searched, vetted, and personally chose the company that would inherit the customers he had served — some of them for thirty and forty years. This is the story of that decision, and why a man with nothing left to prove staked his hard-earned reputation on Foothills.
Who Is Mike Bryan? Nearly Six Decades in the Upstate Carpet Trade
Mike Bryan’s career is, in many ways, the story of the Upstate carpet industry itself. After finishing at North Greenville College, he took a job at Sears in 1965 — right as wall-to-wall carpet was becoming a household luxury. He started in the store’s new custom carpet and rug department, learning the trade from the showroom floor up: greeting customers, measuring jobs, drawing the installation blueprints, verifying colors, and pricing every contract by hand.
He was good at it. By his own account he closed close to 90% of the customers he worked with, often putting in sixty to seventy hours a week. But the long nights pulled him away from his young family, and he began looking for a path that let him build something of his own without living at the job.
That path turned out to be carpet cleaning. Mike entered the cleaning business in its earliest days in the Upstate — when truck-mounted, hot-water extraction was still a novelty — and never looked back. Over the next half-century he ran multiple trucks, took on commercial and apartment accounts, handled water-damage restoration through a ServiceMaster franchise, and built a loyal, high-end residential clientele. He stayed in it, in his words, for about fifty years.
“I hit into it absolutely at the right time. It just started — the carpet business. People were going from hardwood to carpet, and that was a luxury back then.”
— Mike Bryan
He worked, as he puts it, longer than he probably should have — finally retiring at the age of 81. Along the way he estimates he completed somewhere between thirty and forty thousand jobs. Many of those customers stayed with him for decades. That is the customer base he set out to protect.
Why Mike Didn’t Just Close the Doors and Walk Away
Plenty of tradesmen retire by simply turning off the phone. Mike couldn’t do that in good conscience. He had spent a lifetime earning the trust of homeowners who let him into their houses year after year — and he understood that for that kind of customer, the person matters as much as the work.
He was also clear-eyed about how hard the carpet cleaning business is to run well, and how many operators don’t survive it. By his estimate, a large share of cleaners fold within four or five years because they lack the operating capital to weather slow seasons and keep their equipment properly maintained.
“I held out quite a while before I talked to Adam. Most of the carpet cleaners — 50 to 70 percent of them don’t make it over four or five years. They don’t have enough operating capital to carry them through the slow time, and to repair their equipment.”
— Mike Bryan
That conviction is exactly why Mike refused to hand his customers to just anyone. He even had another buyer interested — a capable cleaner, by his account — but one whose business habits gave him pause: showing up at four in the afternoon for a morning appointment, without so much as a phone call. For the customers Mike had spent decades earning, that was disqualifying.
How Mike Bryan Found Adam Proehl
Mike’s search took the better part of a year. The connection came almost by accident. A man stopped by to buy some of Mike’s cleaning equipment and mentioned that another local operator — Adam Proehl — would probably be very interested in the rest of it. Adam came by, bought several thousand dollars’ worth of gear, and the two began to talk.
The more Mike learned, the more convinced he became. Before he ever discussed selling the business, he had already heard about Adam’s reputation. As he looked closer, the picture only got stronger: long experience, professional certifications, and a clean track record.
“He had an excellent reputation. No strikes against him, an A-plus with the Better Business Bureau, and he’d been in business long enough and had all sorts of certifications. So I knew that he had the capability to take care of my customers.”
— Mike Bryan
For Mike, that capability wasn’t a small thing. About half of his customers were high-end homes — the kind of clientele, he notes, who do not want someone rushing through their house in an hour. He needed a successor who could meet that standard.
Why Mike Chose Adam and Samantha Proehl of Foothills Carpet Care
Ask Mike to sum it up and the answer is simple.
“Adam’s a perfect fit for me.”
— Mike Bryan
Behind that short verdict are several specific reasons he came back to again and again.
Deep experience and professional training
Adam has worked in carpet cleaning and repair for nearly two decades. In Mike’s telling, that experience comes paired with formal credentials: “He’s got at least eight major certifications,” Mike says, and “almost a 20-year track record and a perfect reputation.” That combination of time in the field and professional training is exactly what Mike believed his customers deserved.
He does the work right — and doesn’t rush
If there is one phrase that captures what Mike wanted in a successor, it’s quality over quantity. He built his own name on being thorough, never cutting corners to squeeze in more jobs. He saw the same discipline in Adam.
“He’s got the experience, he’s professionally trained, and he doesn’t rush the work. He doesn’t try to make a killing — go in there in 10 minutes and charge $150 to do a job.”
— Mike Bryan
Character a homeowner can trust
Letting someone into your home is personal. Mike knew his customers needed to feel comfortable with whoever showed up at the door, and he believed Adam carried himself in a way that earns that comfort immediately.
“He looks the part, he acts the part, and he’s somebody they’re not going to be afraid of to come in and work in their home.”
— Mike Bryan
He also valued Adam’s honesty in a trade where, as Mike bluntly puts it, a lot of people claim to be great at everything and end up good at nothing. That straightforwardness mattered more to Mike than almost anything else.
The Expertise Behind Foothills Carpet Care
Mike’s endorsement carries weight because of what stands behind it. Adam Proehl didn’t stumble into this work. He grew up around the trade, learned it through a formal apprenticeship, and has spent his career deepening a range of skills that most carpet cleaning companies simply don’t offer.
Adam got his start working alongside his father, a painter in Asheville, North Carolina, who was friends with a local carpet cleaner. That cleaner offered the young Adam an apprenticeship — training him not just to clean carpets but to run a business — and helped him launch his own company in Greenville when he was barely past twenty. Today, Foothills Carpet Care offers a depth of service that reflects all of those years.
High-end residential carpet cleaning done with care
Adam approaches every home the way he’d want his own family’s home treated. For him, the cleaning itself is only part of the job; most of the quality is determined by the preparation.
“The philosophy is, kind of take care of their house even better than I would take care of my own house — to take care of it like I would take care of my mom’s house. We’ll spend longer doing the preparation work than we do on the actual carpet cleaning, because it just takes time to do it correctly.”
— Adam Proehl, Foothills Carpet Care
He uses premium pretreatments and high-end equipment because, in his words, they simply work better — and he closes out every job by walking the home with the customer to confirm they’re completely satisfied before he leaves.
Carpet repair and power stretching — not just cleaning
One of the clearest reasons Mike trusted Foothills is that Adam does far more than clean. He repairs. Many companies will tell a homeowner that damaged carpet has to be replaced; Foothills can often fix it instead.
“We power stretch. We do the work correctly so that it doesn’t wrinkle over time. We do patches — somebody may set an iron on the carpet and forget about it and it burned through — we can do repairs like that.”
— Adam Proehl, Foothills Carpet Care
That repair expertise extends to re-stretching carpet that has bubbled or rippled, patching damaged sections, and even spot-dyeing on older carpets where it’s possible. As Mike pointed out, doing this correctly takes real skill and the right gear — including commercial power stretchers and the know-how to move heavy furniture and protect valuables without causing damage.
Pet stain and pet damage repair
Pets are one of the most common reasons homeowners need more than a routine cleaning. A large share of Adam’s repair work began in apartment complexes, where landlords preferred fixing pet damage over the cost of replacement — and he carried that specialty into residential homes.
Whether it’s a torn section, pet-related damage, or staining, Foothills can often repair the affected area rather than forcing a full replacement — saving the homeowner money and preserving the carpet they already have.
Water damage restoration with a customer-first approach
Water damage is a Foothills specialty, and it’s one Mike specifically said should be promoted alongside the cleaning work. Adam is certified and equipped for it, with the truck capacity to haul drying fans and the equipment a serious restoration job demands.
What sets his approach apart is the ethic behind it. Rather than maximizing the size of a claim, Adam focuses on what’s actually best for the homeowner — sometimes advising them that a claim isn’t even worth filing.
“Some claims don’t need to be turned in to the insurance companies. Sometimes it’s better to take care of the customer and let them pay for it out of pocket so they don’t have a ding on their homeowner’s insurance. We try to do whatever fits the customer best.”
— Adam Proehl, Foothills Carpet Care
Commercial, apartment, and property-management work
Foothills isn’t only a residential company. Adam built his early career serving apartment complexes and property managers — handling lease-renewal cleanings, ongoing maintenance, and the kind of fast, reliable repair work that keeps units rent-ready. That commercial foundation means property managers and business owners across the Upstate can rely on the same standards Mike’s residential customers have come to expect.
A Shared Philosophy: Quality Over Quantity, People Over Profit
What ultimately bonded these two tradesmen across a generation gap wasn’t equipment or technique — it was a shared belief about how to treat people. Both men learned that in a service business built on entering people’s homes, integrity is the product.
Mike spent fifty years proving that customers will gladly pay for work done right when they trust the person doing it. Adam has spent nearly twenty years living the same principle. For Adam, receiving Mike’s endorsement is not a marketing line — it’s a responsibility.
“I feel really honored, and I really deeply appreciate the recommendation. I’ll do my very best to live up to that expectation — and I do have the experience to back that up, so it’s not an empty promise.”
— Adam Proehl, Foothills Carpet Care
What This Means for Mike Bryan’s Longtime Customers
If you were one of Mike Bryan’s customers, his message is simple: he didn’t leave you without a plan. He spent the better part of a year making sure the people who clean and repair your carpets going forward would treat your home, and you, the way he always did.
Foothills Carpet Care is ready to continue that care — with the same patience, the same refusal to cut corners, and the same respect for your home that earned your trust in the first place. Whether you need a thorough cleaning, carpet repair or re-stretching, pet-damage repair, or water-damage restoration, Adam and Samantha Proehl and their team are equipped and certified to handle it.
Ready to schedule, or have a question? The easiest way to reach Foothills Carpet Care is by phone — call the office at [864-569-9366) or (864-569-9378] to speak with Adam directly. You can also learn more and see the welcome message for Mike Bryan’s customers at foothillscarpetcare.com/welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Foothills Carpet Care taking over Mike Bryan’s customers?
Yes. After retiring from roughly fifty years in the Upstate carpet business, Mike Bryan personally selected Adam and Samantha Proehl of Foothills Carpet Care to care for his longtime customers, and he sold them his business to ensure a smooth transition.
Who is Adam Proehl, and how experienced is Foothills Carpet Care?
Adam Proehl is the owner of Foothills Carpet Care, alongside his wife Samantha. He learned the trade through a formal apprenticeship, has worked in carpet cleaning and repair for nearly two decades, and holds multiple professional certifications. Mike Bryan vetted that reputation carefully before choosing him as his successor.
Does Foothills Carpet Care repair carpet, or only clean it?
Both. In addition to professional cleaning, Foothills repairs and power-stretches carpet, patches damaged or burned sections, repairs pet damage, and can spot-dye certain older carpets — often saving homeowners the cost of full replacement.
Does Foothills Carpet Care handle water damage?
Yes. Water-damage restoration is a Foothills specialty. Adam is certified and equipped for it and takes a customer-first approach — focusing on what’s genuinely best for the homeowner rather than maximizing an insurance claim.
Does Foothills serve commercial properties and apartment complexes?
Yes. Foothills serves both residential and commercial customers across the Upstate of South Carolina, including property managers and apartment communities, drawing on Adam’s years of experience serving multi-unit properties.
How do I contact Foothills Carpet Care?
The best way to reach Foothills Carpet Care is by phone at [864-569-9366]. You can also visit foothillscarpetcare.com to learn more or request service.
