Overclean was founded in 1984 by Reid and focused on cleaning the ducting that supplied air conditioning into buildings. This was shortly followed by the emergence of several competitor organisations, but five years later the quality of work by some was so poor that Reid began using a small office to start training his own personnel. 

In 1997, he was asked to retrain 40 Swiss chimney sweeps as air hygiene technicians after they became at risk of being made redundant owing to the new pollution standards in Switzerland. By this stage it had become obvious that the equipment and training offered externally were not up to the necessary standards, so AEME was set up to provide both training and equipment.

AEME

After establishing the business, Reid himself wrote the training manuals covering indoor air quality, kitchen extract cleaning, risk assessment and fire damper testing. Over the next 20 years, Reid undertook two years of training to hone his own skills, and became certified under OCR to design training and development in 1999.

In November 2000, Reid was certified to assess individuals for completion and to evaluate their training standards, before going on to become a major contributor to the HVCA over the following years. Between 2003 and 2013, the AEME course was the number one recommended by BESA. 

Becoming more aware of the need for outside and certifications, Reid’s next move was to acquire CITB registered approved courses and in 2007, his first course was certified by the body. This was followed in September 2012 by his second risk assessment course also receiving approval. In 2013, CITB courses were changed to CITB NI, and in June 2016 he gained registration for AEME’s fire damper course.

In 2018, AEME was granted CPD certifications for the kitchen extract course followed by the fire damper course. Aware that the company needed to expand coverage for AEME training courses, Reid decided to partner with Stirling-based PSS and DCUK FM in Hertfordshire to supply national coverage for the firm’s courses. 

In March 2019, AEME became CITB ATO.

In 2015, Bill Benito, the President of NADCA in the US, flew over to the UK open AEME’s 5,000-sqaure foot training centre, which had been launched with help from the BSB and DCUK FM. The centre’s construction cost around £400,000.

To date, Reid and AEME have trained hospital fire officers from the UK and fire investigators from the FIA, including Dr Peter Mardsen, a world expert in his field. They have also helped train LPC assessment officers for the LPCB’s own insurance standards and fire officers from Scotland, and welcomed students from as far afield as Moscow, New York, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and more.

AEME today is recognised as an approved centre of excellence by NAAD UK, an association which represents 350 member companies in the air duct industry.