History

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Advanced Specialized Equipment was founded in 1994 by Sydney couple John & Robyn Hickey. Having already owned and operated a successful insurance restoration company- Ayline Home Services, (now known as Belfor Ayline) they became aware of a shortage of equipment and suppliers in Australia.

After interest from many cleaning & restoration companies in Australia, further products were sourced and suppliers such as Steamway International, US products, Rollervac, Rotovac and Windsor made their equipment available.

In 1996, with assistance from Steamway, John and his then 21 year old son Grant travelled to the US to gain their IICRC certification in Carpet Cleaning and Upholstery Cleaning. Over the years Grant and John continued to expand their knowledge and gain certification in Commercial Carpet Maintenance, Carpet Dyeing, Carpet Repair and Reinstallation, Fire and Smoke Restoration, Water Damage Restoration, Mould Remediation, Hard Floor Care and Stone and Masonry. John and Grant are both now IICRC certified instructors with John also serving on the board of directors.

Grant spent 6 months living in the US in 1998, learning everything he could about the equipment and chemicals from Steamway International. He brought this knowledge back to Australia so he could service and repair the truckmounted machines and provide the right product knowledge. During this trip, John and Grant also spent time at Dri- Eaz and attained their Applied Structural Drying certification. They were so impressed by their training facility and 'Flood House" they started to explore the possibility of building one in Australia. 

The company expanded at such a rate that in October 2005 ASE moved from where they were at Silverwater to new and much larger premises at Rydalmere. The larger warehouse and offices made it John and Grant's dream of a flood house a reality. The fully operational and interactive flood house was built, complete with water sprinklers for flooding, 8 cameras and closed circuit television in the classroom, the Interactive Training Institute (ITI) was born. The first Applied Structural Drying course was conducted in May 2006 by Steve Fane from Dri-Eaz and the house is now used for almost every course that is conducted.

As the company continued to expand, General Manager Chris Joyce was appointed to assist Grant with running the company. Through Chris' industry knowledge, ASE expanded its market to include not only cleaning & restoration companies, but health and aged care and also janitorial and sanitization companies. ASE now supplies to some of Australia's biggest hospitals and cleaning companies.

The introduction of a new cleaning system- Microfibre, saw many changes in the industry. ASE now supplies cleaning systems, training and support to hundreds of businesses, enabling them to clean more effectively with less chemical and less effort. As the industry accepts Microfibre as the way forward, ASE's microfibre division continues to expand dramatically.

Advanced Specialized Equipment has continued to grow and now has agents and dealers in Perth, Rockhampton, Melbourne and Canberra and hopes to have agents to service their customers all around Australia in the coming years.