General Cleaning Issues - Floorcare, car valeting, buying and selling businesses, pricing, staffing, market research, etc.
chewing gum - pricing?Posted by britboy (britboy), 26 January 2004
hi everyone, nice forum 
i'am thinking of setting a new business up for chewing gum removal but i know nothing of how to price for this type of work,having looked around the net at certain companies sites i see they all seem to say the job is priced by contaminated metre,by job or by the hour but none say exactly how much they charge i.e per metre, any help would be much appreciated 
thanks for reading
brit.Posted by Les (Les), 26 January 2004
Hi Britboy,
I can't help you with the pricing but I would say that there doesn't seem to be shortage of work if our area is anything to go by.
I wonder how much of the work is carried out by the Councils own people and how much by outside specilalists.
Good Luck anyway. Posted by britboy (britboy), 26 January 2004
thanks for the speedy reply les
there are actually a couple of firms in my area that does this work but they are spread pretty thin (no pun intended lol ) and seems to be plenty of work for me and my partner, we have asked to do some work already but have come to stumbling block on the pricing 
thanks all the same les
anyone else please
brit.Posted by Kevin_Whitlow (Pepe Le Pew), 26 January 2004
on 01/26/04 at 02:15:20, britboy wrote:hi everyone, nice forum
i'am thinking of setting a new business up for chewing gum removal but i know nothing of how to price for this type of work,having looked around the net at certain companies sites i see they all seem to say the job is priced by contaminated metre,by job or by the hour but none say exactly how much they charge i.e per metre, any help would be much appreciated
thanks for reading
brit.
Hope you have more joy with your local council than I do! Dealing with councils etc is extremely frustrating bids are 18 months getting sorted all that red tape would stretch to the moon! You tend to find that every now and then this problem will be tackled head on by the public moaning enough to get something done,not on a contractual basis.I`m sure you`ll have more joy approaching individual businesses and property owners.As for price, that is sooooo sensitive.I always quote top dollar for this type of work,you can only stay in business if you charge what you need to,not what the customer will pay! 
Posted by kcs (Marbles), 26 January 2004
Hi Britboy
Not had much experience of this type of clean but i keep a database of all cleaning tasks and times to complete and use this to price quotations to prospects. Always in the ballpark.
This my sound daft but why don't you try out on the streets around your home and see how long it will take you and price accordingly. It may cost you initially but the experience gained would be invaluable. Assuming of course you already have the equipment.
Cheers!!
AndrewPosted by Northerclean (Alex), 26 January 2004
Brit,
Make sure before you look into the business you have full PL insurance for around 10million as I've completed work from UK companies and councils and it's what they all ask for, it’s a nightmare at times to get paid, it’s hard to get them to agree on a set price as they don’t want to pay top prices despite the fact that it’s a time consuming job.
Set yourself a business plan before you do any work for business as you want to lose money. Check out the competition as everyone is trying to get into this area, what kind of system do you use to remove the gum?
Anyway, hope some of the above helps and I’ve not put you off – keep me posted and all the best.
Alex Posted by Les (Les), 26 January 2004
Talking of Councils, I rang ours to offer to clean some grafitti from some signs in a public car park where I live.
Talk about FRUSTRATING 
Having been passed from pillar to post for about 2 weeks and no-one knowing which council or department the signs belong to, and no-one ever ringing back, I gave up
18 months on and the graffiti is still there.
Oh well onwards and upwards Posted by Northerclean (Alex), 26 January 2004
Les, I'm banging my head against a brick wall when dewaling with councils - We try and help and get no help back!!Posted by britboy (britboy), 27 January 2004
thank you all for your time and suggestions, i have decided to leave the council alone for awhile and concentrate on the private side of the things.
i still do not know the pricing side of this business but i will shop around and keep asking i have heard 3 different pricing systems so far ranging from 5 pound a square metre to 10 pound, (if that helps anyone).
once again thank you all very much for your help.
brit Posted by DP (DP), 27 January 2004
I don’t actually do this type of work, but I know people on this forum do!
So I’m wondering what the hang up is in giving britboy a simple guide to pricing.
Is it that top secret or is our friend Happyeater or even Clean_Waterless regarding the post, "Just An Observation" right?
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Generalcon;action=display;num=1074893385
I’m assuming its just because the people who do this work have simply not read this post yet or is it something else? (perhaps the world will end after all)
Who knows? more importantly who will tell? (even britboy passed on what he found out, which gets my humble praise for what its worth instantly) 
Just another observation that’s all Posted by britboy (britboy), 27 January 2004
lol thanks DP your a gent Posted by Duplex_UK (Duplex_UK), 4 February 2004
For chewing gum removal we offer the Gum Go system, which combines vacuumated steam cleaning with special Gum Go chemical.
See http://www.duplex-cleaning.com/news/news.htm for more information.
For a free demonstration call 01227 771276 or email duplex@lineone.net
Posted by kb58 (keith b), 4 February 2004
Hi Britboy,
Go to [url][/url]www.hydrotech.org.uk or email [email][/email]info@hydrotech.org.uk and ask for brochure!Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_Gourlay), 5 February 2004
I was at my local sports centre today and counted 1000 plus pieces of chewing gum on the carpet.
The centre is cleaned by contractors why have they let it build up.
Just wondering what contractors do when they find chewing gum on the carpet.
Is removal not part of the job.
As I am also Councilor I would like to know so that I can ask a question regarding this discusting mess at the next Council Meeting.Posted by Les (Les), 5 February 2004
Hi Ian,
I think you might need to look at the contract terms that the contractors have been given.
It might seem a bit annoying if cleaners just ignore the chewing gum, but as you probably know, it's not the easiest thing to remove.
We always try to keep on top of things like this on our contract work, but you are very often pushed for time.
We had a similar problem at a Sports Centre and reccomended to the management that they put a sign up at the entrance stating ' No chewing gum beyond this point' and of course a bin to put it in next to the sign.
Seemed to work well for them.
Les Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_Gourlay), 5 February 2004
Les,
I agree 100% its not easy to remove but now it is going to cost considerably more.
Shame is I can not put in a bid myself
Regards
IanPosted by Les (Les), 6 February 2004
Hi Ian,
just a bit of info for you re: removal of chewing gum from the carpet.
I just read about a website that deals with oil removal products on another post.
I checked them out and they also supply a product for chewing gum.
If it's any help the site is www.oiltechnics.co.uk
best regards
les Posted by DP (DP), 6 February 2004
Maybe I’m shooting off in the wrong direction here, but it seems to me that various councils and public area organisations are really ignoring the country wide problem of chewing gum in general.
I for one am disgusted by the amount of this outside my local parade of shops and in town centre's. How long can it be before it is highlighted as a major public health issue, as the amount of resident bacteria left in a piece of chewing must be comparable with many major infection sources.
I realise that until there is a way of curbing the reasons, cost will remain an influencing factor. However it can only be a matter of time with health legislation in frenzy at the moment that this issues will be forced.
So who will pick up the real work on this, perhaps it will transpire as another profit centre for the council or will it go to tender. Either way there will always be the private sector, so isn’t there a major future for this type of work?
I know I maybe simply stating the obvious, but there seems to be very little discussion on the matter, so is it a very well kept secret or am I completely wrong?
In case your wondering, No I dont sell chewing gum removal machines, but you never know Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_Gourlay), 6 February 2004
DP.
I agree with you 100% and have been campaining on the issue for the past Four Years.
I want to see Councils issue on the spot fines to offenders.
My district has aquired a machine to deal with the problem in the streets.
In House or contractor that is an ongoing debate.
At present we are in House and the staff are paid £5.00
an hour.
When contractors were used different staff used to turn up every day.
However with the fall in unemployment recruitment is much harder.
Overall standards are higher than with contractor.
Apart from chewing gum standards at sports centre are very high.Posted by Ian_G. (Ian_Gourlay), 6 February 2004
Les,
Thanks for info. on chewing gum removal.
I will have to investigate and see why it has been allowed to build up.
Thats the trouble if you sign up to get fit you come across somthing else that needs to be sorted.Posted by lenpg (Len Gribble), 6 February 2004
Hi DP
I know this is not Chewing Gum Issue but it’s related.
What ever happened to keep Briton tidy campaign! Local authorities will never run it as a business it’s a charity for those who run it, in some London boroughs councillors get from £35 to £50k a year, (for that I will promise you the world but I’m not a eloquent as them) it’s the dinks like us elect them, once in no accountability till next election, then you get promises, the list is endless. The state of our streets has been on BBC radio London this week and on news tonight about the state of London streets.
I was on secondment to Singapore by my former employer Chewing Gum is banded there! And the streets are clean.
How many of you see litterbins in your high street/shop parade? You see them in shopping centres then they have cleaner’s full time going round all the time.
Sorry Ian you being a Councillor and all, if this offends but most local authorities are looking for the quick buck parking fines only and not how clean are our streets!
LenPosted by DP (DP), 6 February 2004
I have extremely mixed feelings about council's in general as I guess many do. The problem is that we have to vote one of them in and they will always fail us in one way or another. However in future I will base my vote on what they will do about our streets as I am fed up living in a pigsty
I also have a hang up about where this works goes as I believe that the work should go out to contract by way of supporting the community and not constantly grabbed by the council.
I also resent intensely how council’s manipulate the free work in the public sector by keeping it rather then passing it out and again using any source of subsidisation to ensure lower prices thereby bringing about economic but artificial justification of their own services above any other.
Call it what you will its bull
However on the other side of the coin, if my council tax were to double, because the council used only contractors, I wouldn’t be huge about that either.
oopps have we slipped off topic here?Posted by britboy (britboy), 7 February 2004
it seems i have started quite an issue here
but still no idea as to the pricing of this job
lol
ahh well i will play it by ear and see what i can get away with.
i'll keep you in touch and let others know what my results are
britPosted by Ian_G. (Ian_Gourlay), 7 February 2004
Yes I agree it would be useful if we could have some ideas on pricing.
On the subject of how much Councillors get paid.
£2500 a year after tax £30 a week aprox so not in it for money.
We have been running a Cleanup Campain for about 3 years and is considered sucessful by the local poulation.
We have one of the highest recycling rates in the country.
And were told we were a very good council providing value for money services by the local authority auditors.
Raised Council Tax by 2%
We still got voted out in May elections.Posted by lenpg (Len Gribble), 7 February 2004
Hi
Back to cost of removing chewing gum I quoted a theme pub (I seem to a lot of these) two weeks ago to clean their carpets the price was £750 to remove gum and £650 to clean carpets manager said no way I’ll get a replacement ok Len walk away (I knew how much it would cost to replace) I got a call today 7th from the area manager can you come a clean the carpet also can you quote for the wood floor! Answer yes but it’s will cost and you think our streets are dirty! The moral every customer thinks cleaning is cheap Ok here’s a scraper show me!
Sorry Ian back to the politics
I can only talk about my local authority I believe all is sub out to contactors some say bad some say good. The problem the way I see it’s not the sub’s it is the local authority staff are totally complacent in allocation; it took 18 month for them to log a problem, which I reported under HSE, even the local authorities ignore the HSE directives until pushed.
Sorry you must be taking the Mick 2% even in you part of the world! Value for money you buy cheap you get cheap, buyer beware!!
A quotation I like. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it as well to add something for the risk and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.
John Ruskin 19th century writer. Thanks Woodman have you got any more like this very useful.
Len
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