66 Years of Specialized Commercial Cleaning, Built the Hard Way
Service-Tech Corporation started in a Cleveland garage in 1960 with one man and a station wagon. Today, 50+ field technicians serve facilities across Ohio, Florida, and Arkansas — under the same name, with the same standard of work.
- NADCAMember since 1990
- 100,000+Facilities serviced since 1960
- 4.9Rated across 111 Google reviews
- Veteran-ownedUS Army veteran ownership since 2019
From a Garage and a Station Wagon
In 1960, Gerald Alan Sutton founded Service-Tech Corporation out of his garage in Cleveland, Ohio. There was no fleet, no dispatch office, no marketing department — Gerald drove his crews to job sites in his personal station wagon, and the work had to speak for itself. It did. Facility by facility, Service-Tech earned a reputation for doing specialized cleaning work that general contractors and janitorial services couldn't touch.
His son, Alan Sutton, joined the company after college and eventually took the wheel — leading Service-Tech through decades of growth in service lines, territory, and technical capability. For 59 years, Service-Tech was a Sutton family company.
In 2019, the family passed stewardship of the business to US Army veteran Gabriel S. Chick, who owns and leads Service-Tech today. Family-owned from 1960 to 2019, veteran-owned since 2019 — the ownership changed hands, but the operating principle didn't: show up, do specialized work to a documented standard, and be there next year.
Sixty-six years later, the numbers describe what that principle built: more than 100,000 facilities serviced, 50+ field technicians, four staffed offices, six markets, three states — and a 4.9 rating across 111 Google reviews from the people who write our report cards.
A Timeline Written in Decades
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1960
Founded in Cleveland
Gerald Alan Sutton starts Service-Tech from his garage, serving Cleveland-area commercial facilities.
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1980
Ohio Expansion
Staffed offices open to serve Columbus and Dayton, extending coverage across central and southwest Ohio.
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1980
Florida Expansion
Service-Tech begins serving the Tampa market, taking the same specialized disciplines to Gulf Coast facilities.
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1990
NADCA Membership
Service-Tech joins the National Air Duct Cleaners Association — one year after NADCA's founding — and has maintained membership continuously for 36 years.
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2019
Veteran Ownership
US Army veteran Gabriel S. Chick takes ownership after 59 years of Sutton-family stewardship.
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2023
2024Southeast Growth
Service areas open in Tallahassee, Florida (2023) and Pine Bluff, Arkansas (2024).
Garage era
Early crews
Fleet
Not a Janitorial Franchise — a Specialized Mechanical Cleaning Contractor
Search "commercial cleaning company" and you'll mostly find contract janitorial: nightly trash, floors, and restrooms. That is not what Service-Tech does. We are a specialized commercial and industrial cleaning contractor. Our technicians work inside air handling systems, kitchen exhaust systems, cooling towers, and production environments — work governed by standards like NADCA's ACR, NFPA 96, and combustible-dust housekeeping requirements, performed with containment, negative pressure, and documented procedures.
The distinction matters when you're the one accountable for a facility. A janitorial vendor keeps a building presentable. A mechanical cleaning contractor keeps its systems compliant, efficient, and out of the incident report. It also shows in the toolset: dry ice blasting rigs, negative-air machines, rope access equipment, and food-safe sanitation procedures aren't things a janitorial franchise carries on the truck — they're the core of what we do. Explore our full scope of services or the industries we serve.
Over 66 years, that specialization deepened rather than drifted. Service lines like dry ice blasting and rope access were added because they solved problems our existing clients had — how to clean production equipment without moisture, how to reach elevated structures without weeks of scaffolding — not because they were fashionable. That's how a company started in a garage ends up cleaning hospitals, foundries, data centers, and food plants across three states.
Leadership Continuity
Service-Tech's technical leadership runs deep. P.K. Keller was tapped to serve on the NADCA board of directors — putting Service-Tech at the table where national air-duct-cleaning standards are shaped. Alongside him, leaders including Paul Keller Jr. and Doug Stastny have carried the company's field knowledge across decades of projects. That continuity is why methods here are documented and taught, not improvised: when a technician joins Service-Tech, they inherit procedures shaped by people who have spent careers inside the systems they'll be cleaning. In a trade where most companies are younger than their equipment, that chain of knowledge — founder to family to the current generation of leadership — is the asset clients actually feel on site.
The Standards Behind the Work
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NADCA member since 1990
HVAC system cleaning performed with the containment and verification discipline the association's ACR standard describes.
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IKECA member
Kitchen exhaust cleaning aligned with the standards that fire marshals and AHJs actually check.
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Documented fall-protection training
Elevated and rope-access work performed on redundant two-rope systems by trained technicians.
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Rapid emergency response
When an unplanned shutdown or failed inspection can't wait, we mobilize.
See why facility managers choose us or read what customers say in our reviews.
Why 66 Years Matters to a Facility Manager
Most cleaning vendors don't survive a decade; Service-Tech has operated continuously for 66 years and serviced more than 100,000 facilities in that time. For a facility manager, that longevity is a risk calculation, not a sentiment: a vendor with 66 years of history has survived recessions, ownership transitions, and technology shifts — and will still be reachable when your next outage, audit, or emergency comes around. It also means institutional knowledge: odds are we've already cleaned a system like yours, in a facility like yours, under constraints like yours.
There's a quieter benefit, too. Long-lived contractors accumulate documentation habits — scopes of work, service records, procedures refined across thousands of jobs — that a two-year-old outfit simply hasn't had time to build. When your auditor, insurer, or fire marshal asks what was cleaned, when, and to what standard, the answer at a Service-Tech account is a record, not a recollection. And if you'd rather hear it from customers than from us, our Google reviews are public and unedited.
Put 66 years of specialized experience on your next scope of work.
What Sixty-Six Years Actually Taught Us
Longevity in this trade is not a marketing line, it is accumulated method. Every discipline we run was added because a client had a problem the existing toolkit could not solve, and each one carries its own physical technique.
- We learned to dislodge and extract duct contamination simultaneously under negative pressure, because the alternative — disturbing a system and letting it settle — simply relocates the problem into the occupied space.
- We learned to isolate and drain a cooling tower cell before touching it, and that descaling mineral deposit and stripping biofilm need different chemistry and a different sequence.
- We learned to scrape and degrease a kitchen exhaust run to bare metal rather than to the eye, because a fire marshal measures grease depth with a gauge.
- We learned to bond and ground a vacuum to the machine, to purge and gas-test a vessel before anyone enters it, and to monitor the atmosphere continuously rather than once at the hatch.
- We learned to descend on two independently anchored ropes to reach a stack interior or a roof centre, and to encapsulate a duct liner that is too far gone to clean but not yet due for replacement.
Sixty-six years is how long it takes to be able to say all of that in one company, under one safety programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Service-Tech Corporation founded?
Service-Tech was founded in 1960 by Gerald Alan Sutton, who started the company out of his garage in Cleveland, Ohio, and drove his crews to job sites in his personal station wagon. The company has operated continuously for 66 years.
Who owns Service-Tech today?
US Army veteran Gabriel S. Chick has owned Service-Tech since 2019. Before that, the company was owned and led by the Sutton family for 59 years — first by founder Gerald Alan Sutton, then by his son Alan Sutton.
Is Service-Tech a janitorial company?
No. Service-Tech is a specialized commercial and industrial cleaning contractor. We clean air duct systems, kitchen exhaust systems, cooling towers, and industrial production environments — standards-governed mechanical cleaning, not nightly janitorial service.
What credentials does Service-Tech hold?
Service-Tech has been a NADCA member since 1990 and is an IKECA member for kitchen exhaust cleaning. Elevated work is performed on redundant two-rope systems under a documented fall-protection training program.
How big is Service-Tech?
Service-Tech fields more than 50 field technicians operating from offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Tampa, plus service areas in Tallahassee and Pine Bluff. Every office serves a 150-mile radius, and the company has serviced more than 100,000 facilities since 1960.
Does Service-Tech work outside Ohio?
Yes. Service-Tech has served Tampa since 1980, added the Tallahassee area in 2023 and the Pine Bluff, Arkansas area in 2024, and can cover multi-site portfolios across Ohio, Florida, and Arkansas under one contract.
How do I get a quote from Service-Tech?
Request a free estimate — we quote after a site assessment so the number reflects your actual system and scope, with travel already factored in. Several services also have published starting prices, like commercial air duct cleaning from $1,375 and kitchen exhaust hood cleaning from $599 per cleaning. Call 440-735-1505 or use the contact form to get started.