[Steven Butler]

Always considering adding a service to carpets & upholstery but dont fancy ovens which seems the natural move.
Been looking on spinaclean website and they have some interesting options. Conservatory/upvc cleaning appeals but do you think this is more for a window cleaner to add? Then theres gutter cleaning and a few others.
Just wondered if anyone had bought from them and what your opinions are. Cheers

[Rob@Blast off]

I would of thought carpets and upholstery is a bit more in-depth for an add on.
Guttering is a good one but even with a vac you will still need ladders now and again.

[Steven Butler]

Cheers Rob, im thinking more long term to be honest.
Always fancied pressure washing but having read yours and other pressure washing businesses posts i realise a basic set up wont get me far.

[Rob@Blast off]

What do you do at the moment then?

[Steven Butler]

Carpets & Upholstery mate. Just in my 3rd year.

[Rob@Blast off]

Ah I see, I miss read the original post 

[Rob@Blast off]

What about hard floors?

[Steven Butler]

That a good option.
You know these start up packages companies sell for pressure washing (domestic) for £1000/1500 ish are they no good at all Rob? Apparantly they use the customers water supply and a wheelie bin for example as a tank...??

[Matt.]

I think ur now taking the preverbal

£1500 will defo get u going...... and u choose how ever u want to feed ur tank. If ur brain only excels to a wheelie bin then crack on
I think u should just stick with the carpets and upholstery mate

[Steven Butler]

Although not right keen on ur tone cheers for the reply Matty.
Look at it another way mate, if i posted saying im setting up pressure washing for a grand everyone would shoot me down saying its not enough.....

[Matt.]

Ben Marriott posts on here and he sells pressure washers. He says between 1300 - 1500  is more than enough to be paying and mine is decent enough to be doing commercial work daily

[Steven Butler]

Any chance you can email me please mate
stevenbutler06@btinternet.com

[Rob@Blast off]

I set up for a grand including van 
The thing with adding on pressure washing etc is you'll get covered in  crap and so will the back of your van eventually.

[Radek Jablonski]

Steven, think twice think floors, tiles, indoor work, better money. 
Develop enough work for yourself around carpets, upholstery and floors, then if you want to do more then employ someone to do dirty cold work outside.

[Tadgh O Shea]

That a good option.
You know these start up packages companies sell for pressure washing (domestic) for £1000/1500 ish are they no good at all Rob? Apparantly they use the customers water supply and a wheelie bin for example as a tank...??

Hi Steven,  indeed a very productive add on service to offer your clients would be deep cleaning of hard floors, if you think about it there is huge demand for this service as most householders use traditional mops and chemicals which just end up making their floors dirty anyway, eventually they become so soiled that deep cleaning is the only solution, you don't need any expensive equipment to offer this service just some deep cleaning mops,grout cleaning brushes,safe and effective cleaning solution and you are up and running for under a 150 quid. Its easy to earn over a grand a week providing this add on, send me an email to info@jskcleaning.ie if you want a few ideas on how to tap into this wide open market.   Tadgh

[Mike Halliday]

Best decision I ever made was to add pressure washing to my bussiness.

Hard floors might be a better earner but the avaliability of work is smaller  you will find your self travelling  bigger distances.

walk down any  semi-detached street and you will see drive after drive that needs cleaning and every home has paths or a patio round the back so the market is huge, I still work in the same 4mile radius that I aimed for with my carpet cleaning (I rarely leave my small town)

If I could pack in carpet cleaning altogether and just do PW I would,  the job value & hourly rate achieved is much higher.

I started of for the first 2yrs with a techclean 13hp Honda and 18inch FSC  an adjustable lance and a turbo lance,  cost me  £1300  5 years ago

[wpclean]

Best decision I ever made was to add pressure washing to my bussiness.

Hard floors might be a better earner but the avaliability of work is smaller  you will find your self travelling  bigger distances.

walk down any  semi-detached street and you will see drive after drive that needs cleaning and every home has paths or a patio round the back so the market is huge, I still work in the same 4mile radius that I aimed for with my carpet cleaning (I rarely leave my small town)

If I could pack in carpet cleaning altogether and just do PW I would,  the job value & hourly rate achieved is much higher.

I started of for the first 2yrs with a techclean 13hp Honda and 18inch FSC  an adjustable lance and a turbo lance,  cost me  £1300  5 years ago

What machine do you use now Mike ?

[Mike Halliday]

I built  my own with a water cooled diesel engine and big Cat pump, it's mounted in a traller

[Matt.]

Ruddy hell mike.

You built that yourself, well done mate.
That looks like it will punch any machines head in 

[Tadgh O Shea]

Best decision I ever made was to add pressure washing to my bussiness.

Hard floors might be a better earner but the avaliability of work is smaller  you will find your self travelling  bigger distances.

walk down any  semi-detached street and you will see drive after drive that needs cleaning and every home has paths or a patio round the back so the market is huge, I still work in the same 4mile radius that I aimed for with my carpet cleaning (I rarely leave my small town)

If I could pack in carpet cleaning altogether and just do PW I would,  the job value & hourly rate achieved is much higher.

I started of for the first 2yrs with a techclean 13hp Honda and 18inch FSC  an adjustable lance and a turbo lance,  cost me  £1300  5 years ago

Hi Mike, i must admit that in my early years of cleaning i did earn plenty from PW, i recommended hard floor cleaning as an add on because it is such an untapped area of our industry, in our area for example there are dozens of guys offering PW services and some guys doing it very cheaply, i know of two guys in our area who are getting so much work and earning very nice income from just deep cleaning hard floors, and deep cleaning bathroom wall tiles and grouting (and genuinely are kept very busy from all the referrals they are getting) they have no expensive equipment to worry about and are availing of word of mouth marketing which is free, this is a very profitable add on that anyone can tap into as its not rocket science when it comes to deep cleaning grout lines and tiled surfaces. i know for fact this as an add on service is wide open to anyone in any area.

[Mike Halliday]

I agree that hard floors is a very untapped market and has less  competition, I know a couple of guys my self and they often talk of job worth in thier £1000s so the job value makes the travel often involved worth it.

But another thing about it that makes it a hard market to get into is the technical knowledge required, you can't just get into hard floor cleaning you need very specialist training .

power-washing is not so technical, you can just buy the equipment and practice at home and on friends without risk of causing serious damage.

[Kev Martin]

I agree that hard floors is a very untapped market and has less  competition, I know a couple of guys my self and they often talk of job worth in thier £1000s so the job value makes the travel often involved worth it.

But another thing about it that makes it a hard market to get into is the technical knowledge required, you can't just get into hard floor cleaning you need very specialist training .

power-washing is not so technical, you can just buy the equipment and practice at home and on friends without risk of causing serious damage.

Mike

There is a massive difference in Hard Floor Cleaning and Natural Stone Restoration.  A 2 day course is all that is required to understand Hard Floor Cleaning

Kevin

[Mike Halliday]

Kev, when does cleaning become restoration? And after the 2 day course could you 'clean' natural stone ? (but not restore it)

[Tadgh O Shea]

I agree that hard floors is a very untapped market and has less  competition, I know a couple of guys my self and they often talk of job worth in thier £1000s so the job value makes the travel often involved worth it.

But another thing about it that makes it a hard market to get into is the technical knowledge required, you can't just get into hard floor cleaning you need very specialist training .

power-washing is not so technical, you can just buy the equipment and practice at home and on friends without risk of causing serious damage.

Hi Mike, most guys are walking past these deep cleaning jobs everyday that is why i said its an untapped market because very few guys offer it as a service or as an add on, now as Kevin has pointed out yes there is a huge difference (deep cleaning tiles and grout lines) simple very little cost to set up, (hard floor and natural stone restoration) expensive set up costs takes many years to become proficient.

[Plankton]

Where could I find a two day course near Glasgow and what would you be looking to pay.
Roof coating is around £500 for a days training down south.

[Kev Martin]

Kev, when does cleaning become restoration? And after the 2 day course could you 'clean' natural stone ? (but not restore it)

Mike

Hard Floor Cleaning becomes restoration the second you cannot put the problem right using normal machines.  To clean hard floors you require in my opinion a Mono Rotary Machine fitted with a water tank, a selection of brushes, drive boards, Pads, a decent wet vac and a microfibre mop, floor pads, cloths and professional bucket with ringer.  Once you have done our course you will be able to

Deep Clean any floor Stone , Tile or Linoleum.
Do any small cosmetic repairs to the above
Seal any of the above
Grout Colour any grout
Diagnose problems
Be aware of the correct cleaners to use in the correct dilutions
Identify any floor type
Re polish to a certain standard
Hone any of the above

That is about it anything after that is advanced restoration

[Kev Martin]

If you cannot do or understand the basic stuff below you should not really be cleaning be cleaning hard floors! IMHO

1.  Identify The Type of Floor (This includes knowing the difference between Ceramic Tile & Porcelain).
2.  Correctly Identify the problem or the contaminants!
3.  Know when to use pH Neutral, Alkaline or Acids on a floor to the correct dilutions and why!
4.  Carry out an effective test area to determine best method to clean!

Here are a couple of Scenarios if anyone feels up to them.

1.  Customer calls you in to reseal their bathroom complaining that the bedroom wall at the back of the shower is damp!

Question

What is wrong and what should you be looking for?

2.  Customer calls you in and complains that the tiler has left grout haze on their newly laid unpolished porcelain tiles. 

Question

What do you need to establish regarding the adhesive and grout used prior to even attempting solving their problem and the reasons why?

3.  Same as Q2 but now it's polished marble.

Question

How do you solve that

Question

You have an unfilled honed travertine floor to deep clean & seal it is 320M2. 

What's the best method to deal with it and they want all the pits and fissures  cleaning as well

You only have the basic stuff above

[Matt.]

Well,

A. I would give my mate kev Martin a ring, send him some pics and go from there, 

But in the mean time

I start with the windows and do a bit of pressure washing while am waiting for kev to get back to me 

Easy 

The thing is not everyone has got someone on end of phone !!!

[Rob@Blast off]

Question 1
Water penetrating through the grout possibly due to the fact the tiller hasn't "tanked" behind the tiles.
Question 2
The haze could be the transport wax still on the tiles.
Question 3
Build up of over application of surfactant
Question 4
Haven't a clue   

[Rob@Blast off]

Did I pass? 

[Matt.]

I will ring kev and ask Rob 

[Kev Martin]

Question 1
Water penetrating through the grout possibly due to the fact the tiller hasn't "tanked" behind the tiles.
Question 2
The haze could be the transport wax still on the tiles.
Question 3
Build up of over application of surfactant
Question 4
Haven't a clue   

Rob

Not a bad effort!  Do you wish you had been able to make day 2?

[Rob@Blast off]

Yeah wish I could have made the second day, but my ex employee couldn't handle it without me to babysit him, oh well back to being a one man band!

[Kev Martin]

Yeah wish I could have made the second day, but my ex employee couldn't handle it without me to babysit him, oh well back to being a one man band!

Staff can be a nightmare!  Gimme a bell when I run the next course and I will try and jam you onto day 2 FOC