Long Island is currently in the midst of the summer season, and there's few things more that local residents like to do than to kick back in their immaculately-groomed backyards with their family and friends, fire up the grill, and enjoy some genuinely delicious BBQ cooking in the form of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, or anything else that gets your mouth watering. However, if your grill currently isn't up to snuff – or if it's not even working at all – then you need the proven services of a true professional to address it, and that's where Renew BBQ Cleaning of Smithtown, NY comes in.
Many people simply take the cleanliness and hygiene of their backyard grills for granted, but over the years an increasingly dirty BBQ can actually present a number of potential health issues for families, such as heightened exposure to carcinogens, corrosion, caked on-buildup of sludge, and even the unsightly presence of rodent droppings.
However, Renew BBQ Cleaning – with the seasonal business currently celebrating their 7th successful year – can clean up your grill and make it as good as new, according to husband-and-wife owners Maria and Bobby.
“We are a family-owned local barbecue cleaning and repair service,” Maria said. “We will come over and steam-clean your grill. In addition, my husband is a retired Local 3 union electrician, and he can repair any issue you may be having with your grill, no matter the brand or what state of disrepair it's in.”
Renew BBQ is qualified and experienced in servicing and cleaning all major manufacturers, to the point that many of them actually contact them to schedule the company to perform warranty work for them throughout the tri-state area.
Maria reviewed the rigorous cleaning process that Renew BBQ offers their clients; first, the elements from the grill are given a thorough steam-cleaning and scrubbing, followed by the head-to-toe scrubbing, de-greasing, disinfecting, and polishing of the actual barbecue itself, using only the finest environmentally-friendly cleaning solutions.
Renew BBQ Cleaning also provides a few services that one normally wouldn't associate with such a company; namely mosquito spraying, which Maria said was something that her clients would request from them on a regular basis. After all, who wants to sit around grilling some delicious meat in their backyard while having to deal with swarms of pesky mosquitoes in their face at the same time? Mosquito spraying seemed to go hand in hand with their core services, she said, and it only made sense to begin offering it.
“One of our guys used to work for a company called Mosquito Joe, so we decided to put him to work because when I call customers back, the first thing they do is thank me for calling back – because apparently nobody else in his business bothers calling people back – but once we've established trust after being in their home and backyard, they want to know what else we do. So, we decided to branch out a little and help make these people's backyards a more comfortable place for them to spend their summers.”
Maria and Bobby started Renew BBQ Cleaning after the two had retired and found the extra time on their hands to be a trifle boring; after conducting some research, they stumbled across an advertisement in a magazine that pointed them in the direction of their new career.
“My husband and I were talking, and we decided that we needed something else to do, because retirement wasn't working for us,” she said. “I found Work From Home Magazine at Barnes & Noble, and there was a little ad in the corner that said, ‘turn your barbecue into a business.’ We did research and purchased what is known as a ‘business in a box.’”
This “business in a box” was courtesy of a gentleman experienced in the field who supplied Maria and Bobby with the necessary tools and equipment to start their own self-owned and operated barbecue cleaning company, as well as the in-person instruction they needed to get the operation off the ground.
Renew BBQ Cleaning serves all of Long Island, and in some instances they will even travel to places like Connecticut and Westchester for the right jobs.
Renew BBQ is truly a family-owned and operated business; in addition to Maria and her husband, the company also employs their three children in addition to their nephew, their daughter's boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s brother.
“When I say this is a family business, I mean this is a family business,” Maria said.
Initially, what was meant to just take up some spare time and bring some side income into the family quickly became far more involved than anyone was expecting. After a mild first season, Renew BBQ’s word of mouth quickly spread and before they knew it, Marie and Bobby found their hands full with almost too much business for them to manage. The lone trailer they started out with quickly expanded to two vans, and business has progressed to the point where they now have a waiting period that customers are only too happy to accommodate.
“The first year we had 50 clients, and that was nice because it was just enough to keep us busy and put some extra money in our pocket,” she said. “Next year, it was 250 clients, and now people are waiting four to six weeks to get their grill cleaned by us. We normally have two teams going out doing four to five grills a day, five to six days a week.”
Renew BBQ’s annual season typically starts in late February and runs until approximately November, depending on the weather; the busiest times for the company are Memorial Day, Mother's Day, and the 4th of July, although business remains hectic throughout their entire season.
But despite how busy their lives are during each season, Maria said that it's a great feeling for her and Bobby to have discovered a new career later in life, and to watch that career take off and blossom into an incredibly successful, in-demand family business endeavor.
“It's a great feeling, especially since we've tried other things beforehand and it didn't really work out, so I feel like it was a learning process that served as stepping stones for this business,” she said. “We feel very blessed. I get overwhelmed sometimes in the office when three lines are ringing at once, but it's still a great feeling.”
To find out more about Renew BBQ Cleaning, please call 631-265-WASH or visit https://www.renewbbqcleaning.com.