[Ian Gourlay]

I have noticed a trend just recentley of experienced members ans supper heroes claiming to earn £100 an hour cleaning carpets.

I would like to know cleaning houses how many carpets and what size they clean in an hour.

Was the carpet dirty to start with.

Obviouisly I am slow

[Buster Ingram]

What you have got to ask your self is, This £100 an hour as they all claim!
Is it the odd  job or is it continous ever hour on ever job.
I'd say not!
Even a Porn stars don't get that, so for a carpet cleaner to claim £100 an hour on a regular basis is talking out of his A*&S.

These so call supper heroes would be turning over well in excess of a hundred grand a year. And would they be on here moaning about the price of fuel and such like.
No not on your nelly.

[carpet guy]

Precisely my thoughts Dave, but they don't like you to burst their bubble. Sure there are days when it all falls into place and the money is good, but what's the point of one good day in seven, which gives you £500, but no work for another week,  when you can have five decent days at £50 an hour worked and clear £1000 or more ?

Particularly, when the marketing cost of the latter is likely to be considerably less.

[liahona]

Dave, point taken and accordingly those who are making it and consistantly arent the ones moaning about the fuel prices.

There are one man bands consistantly turning over 100k and one I know is in access of 150k on his own just protecting.  No cleaning machines, just a small van with a few good sprayers.

I have helped a few on here who first thought £100 an hour was too high a target.  A couple of weeks on, with a different attitude to them selves and their clients they have realised how easy it is to work at £100 an hour. 

With a needle and thread it is way more than that but then of course usually it is only a few minutes at a time.  Still 40 or 50 quid for 10 mins work still equates to  decent return.

Rob, by your figues but adding a day...... 2 days for a 1000 or 5 days for a 1000.

But at least you have us working for more than minimum wage now.

Anyway, this subject has been beat to death so many times before.

Best, Dave.

[PaulKing]

Even a Porn stars don't get that, so for a carpet cleaner to claim £100 an hour on a regular basis is talking out of his A*&S.

Hello I'm am the Svedish Carpet Cleaner I'v ave come to clean your carpeting!

Dave its odd that you should hold up porn stars as a high earning bracket of workers. Don't have a side profession do you.

[Mike Halliday]

I read all the post on this forum, I see the £100 an hour quoted quite a lot, I've even started a thread on the very subject.

I've yet to see anyone say they continuously, on every job earn £100 an hour ( apart from Dave L ) 

I often earn £100 an hour, what this means is I can pull up at a house clean a LR & HSL and leave in just over 1 hour, earning on average £110, it doesn't  mean I leave home at 8am come home at 4pm and have earned £800.

I clean very dirty carpets and carpets that look new.

mike

mike

[stevegunn]

The top and bottom of it is you earn what you can whether it be £100 per hour or £20 per hour.Or do you go for a daily rate because no one works a full 8 hour day.I aim for £200-250 a day don't always achieve it, but you cannot do it everyday,some days I earn more than that but its not everyday.

People have different priorities being self employed eg more time off,spend more time with family etc etc . I for one don't want to be working 7 days a week amassing a fortune and missing the kids grow up or die early of a heart attack because I'm stressed out all the time.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Another way of looking at it is aim high and you might get there, don't and you won't.

If you aim for 500 per day and get 400 isn't that better than aiming for 250 and getting 240.

100 a hour should be what you try to get and if you don't always succeed then at least you tried.

Cheers

Doug

[carpet guy]

Dave L

I can count Dave and I have never suggested anyone capable of aquiring highly paid work should do it for less. My suggestion always was and still is, that encouraging people, with no experience , or training,  to start in the business with top end prices, is wrong.

Too cheap is also wrong and my opinion has always been, that you gain experience while charging low prices and taking on all comers, so to speak.

As you learn and get better at the job, you charge more, progressing, after a couple of years to moderate pricing, eg, prices that would gross around the £25 - £35 mark and by the end of three years you should be competent enough to justify charges that would give around £50 - £90 per hour.

That is the level I've worked at over the past couple of years, having started 24 years ago with my target at £20 per hour.

I have never suggested that you were a cowboy, but that others trying to emulate you ,or others -  who work in "specialised" markets and get considerably higher fees -  could be regarded as potential cowboys, as they would simply be charging a lot for an average job.

You have done a considerable amount of research, training and have gained much experience, plus you appear to have a " craftsman " attitude and I'm sure endeavour to supply the best possible service on every job you do and you also have the self belief to charge accordingly, with which I have no argument and never have.

It's probably 10 or 12 years since Robert Saunders " went on the road " with his " I can show you how any c/c can earn £1000 a week " presentation.

At that time I was grossing more than £1k per week, but was working harder than necessary, as many do. I knew that by increasing my prices I would reduce my workload but still earn as much, or slightly more. So why had I not done so? Because the phone just kept ringing and I just kept working.

Having earned £50k ten years ago, from lowish prices I reckon it would be well within the reach of many operators to achieve £100 k today, but, they would have to market themselves pretty aggressively to do so and learn more about time management, what constitutes acceptable shortcuts, best use of chemicals, etc, rather than just raising prices and hoping.

Again, I am saying work cheap, but you need to be out there in peoples homes, to get paid.

They won't come knocking on your door.

Bye.


Just read Steve's post as I hit the button

I agree to a fair extent with Steve's comments and while it's great to have the flexibility to work the hours you want, most self employed people actually work much more than 8 hours a day. Not as slaves to their work, but with an objective, maybe 5 years ahead or 10 years ahead.
Most of them will expect to sell their business and their objective will be to get the highest possible price for it. Most c/c businesses will not be sold, so you need to earn enough to build a " nest egg " for your life beyond c/c.
That being so, working part time could let you down in a few years time.

[Ian Gourlay]

It was late when I asked this question, but what i was trying to work out is how much cleaning  square metres are being done in an hour to claim  the £100

Mikes example would take me more than hour although the charge is similiar
.

[davep]

Maybe an average ££s per hour is a more realistic way to look upon earnings?

[Mike Halliday]

Ian do you quote over the phone?

if yes then you will take longer than me because to start with you have to have a little site survey and discussion with the customer before you even start.

 I've already seen the job and instructed the customer to prepare the room for my arrival, when I turn up I walk to the door carrying equipment, then I'm in & started.

I was thinking about this this morning as I drove away from a job having earned more just short of the £100 within the hour, I have already been to the job and inspected it (most quotes I do I'm already driving near so can just pop in) which took me 20mins.

So in real time the job actually took a total time of 1hr 20mins.

If I take into consideration the amount of time I take to do a site survey I probably never earn above a £100/hr

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

If say you have a minimum charge of £50 and it takes you 30 minutes to say remove a stain then does that mean you are earning £100 per hour?

But as Mike says you have to factor in travelling time and surveying time.

[Ian Gourlay]

Ian do you quote over the phone?

if yes then you will take longer than me because to start with you have to have a little site survey and discussion with the customer before you even start.

 I've already seen the job and instructed the customer to prepare the room for my arrival, when I turn up I walk to the door carrying equipment, then I'm in & started.

I was thinking about this this morning as I drove away from a job having earned more just short of the £100 within the hour, I have already been to the job and inspected it (most quotes I do I'm already driving near so can just pop in) which took me 20mins.

So in real time the job actually took a total time of 1hr 20mins.

If I take into consideration the amount of time I take to do a site survey I probably never earn above a £100/hr

I do both, but one of my problems is I talk to much

I did a survey yesterday and by the time I had played with the kids etc i was there an hour

and Ive still got to do the job £120


I also find working on stains can take time maybee I should factor in a cost for stains

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

I've always charged on a time basis for stains.

Most are covered by the minimum charge but occasionally I've gone over my minimum charge/time period. It's quite a funny feeling working on a little area, sometimes waiting for a reaction to occur, and yet the meter is ticking over.

I try and minimise any surprise at the final bill by explaining all this before I start and then having frequent checks with the client.

[Ian Gourlay]

Most Carpet Cleaners offer stain removal Free as part of the package and this can be where a lot of time is lost.

Just be to survey again another hour, Stains look easy but on investigation they are going to be difficult due to customer trying before hand.

[Steve Chapman]

Surely a realistic way of really working out what you get an hour, running the

business and not just at the wand, is to take your annual profit divide by

number of weeks worked during the year and then divide by average hours

worked on the business each week, mine generally is thirty hours, and then see

what you get. 

This figure represents what you get paid for running the whole business,

including being at home doing invoices and taking calls, designing flyers etc etc.

I just did mine, and although have done plenty of jobs in hour @ £100, the

result was quite shocking  :


Where's that tesco application form again? 


steve

[Mike Halliday]

Steve  but we need to remember the title of this topic its '£100 an hour' not 'profit per hour'

its like the other topic running at the moment 'would you work for £20 an hour' lot of people have said no but if they worked out their actual profit many are working for £20 an hour.

we can only answer the question as asked, not change the goal post

[liahona]

Ian, back to the question.   Kind of too many variables to give a definitive answer.  Sometimes I clean a very small amount of carpet for £100 and other times I clean quite a lot of carpet for the £100. 

I cleaned a bedroom the other day which was only approx 12ft x 18ft but had to charge £300 for it as it was 4 floors up and so by the time all the hoses were covered, tied up etcetera it took me 3 hours.  The actual cleaning took less than 15 mins.

When I first started cleaning over here I charged per square foot but found how useless that can be.  So now I charge accordingly to get what it is I want per hour. 

Other than that the only way to answer your question would be for each of us here to work out what we charge and therefore would know how many feet of carpet to be cleaned to reach the £100 mark, that is if we charge per area, whatever that area may be.

Steve, if we divided what we "make" on the day or at the wand so to speak by all of our down time then we dont actually earn that much per hour.  Thats why we need to earn as much as we can at the wand.

If I did those figures I would be less than 50 an hour, maybe even less, not sure and not going to want to find out either.  Based on 2080 working hours a year.

Best, Dave.

[Steve Chapman]

Guys, you are probably right, thats what happens when you start to analyze

things too much  :

I was only thinking about it that way, because i spend alot of time doing

invoices, and doing surveys, and that time has to be paid, so realistically comes

out of what you make when actually cleaning.

Also at the end of the day it is the actual profit that counts, so if you make £100

an hour but make £10 for yourself, your still probably better off working at

tesco's 

Regards
steve

[Dave_Lee]

Ian,
I think you will find that most CCs will treat a Stain with the appropriatte spotter during the normal course of carpet cleaning, in the hope that it may remove or improve it. As for more specific time consuming attempts at removal of a Stain, I for one would charge extra, I wouldnt spend a lot of time on one during the normal course of cleaning a carpet.
Dave.

[Neil Williams]

bedroom approx 12ft x 18ft
had to charge £300
Actual cleaning took less than 15 mins.

There's something that concerns me with examples like this
1) They probably could have got a new carpet for that price
2) When you buy a new carpet do they slap a huge surcharge on the shop price because it's on the 4th floor?
3) At the end of the day the customer pays (in their mind) for 15 minutes work...£300
4) I maintain even £100/hour is obscene for cleaning, even if it is carpet cleaning, even if it is an expensive truckmount outfit.
5) What other occupations are charging customers £100/hours?

[Neil Grainger]

Neil

Dave only works for people that pay alot for their carpets so you can guarantee that it cost alot more than £300.00.

[spindle]

lawyers/solicitor wanted £50-£75 PER HOUR
when i looked in to it bout 2 yrs ago

[Neil Grainger]

Sorry dont agree their Neil, £100 whilst you are cleaning needs to be the price you aim for, its only when you take into account the traveling that it will bring it below £100.

Dont always get it all Year round but in the summer when its busy always try to earn that money whilst I am cleaning.

Why do some think that cleaning is not worth that sort of money, your cleaning other peoples crap up, most of the people that will pay that wont do it for themselves & expect to have to pay a premium for it.

[spindle]

oh and my car mechanic/dentist charges loads.............

[Neil Williams]

Mechanics: I was a mechanic in the army which was a 2 year condensed course with further courses over the years. In civy street it's a 5 year apprenticeship. The costs of tools and equipment is far more than a truckmount.
Solicitors: 'A' level minimum with most having built up a £25k debt thank to the university degree they need.
Carpet cleaners: Fill this bit in yourself and compare

[spindle]

and your point is??

you asked who else charges £100 ph............

just answering the question with a light hearted comment no need to be so defensive.........just because you were a mechanic.......

cost off  van and t/m 20/30k + training +chems+acessories+ anything else i may have missed.........

[Neil Williams]

I'm not being defensive just realistic 

[spindle]

seriously.......

how much can a mechanic earn p.a net.

mine charges 160 for a full service......oh and dont forget vat

well i pay him cash.......so never pay the vat.
but 160  cash for 2 hours work cant be that bad.........

[Neil Williams]

Full service?
So there's the purchase of probably £100 of parts, oils, filters etc
Labour charges for mechanics vary between £50 (independant) and £80 (dealer) per hour.

[carpet guy]

Getting silly again

Mechanics work from fitted out premises, which not only cost a great deal to fit out, but have commercial rates, water expenses, constant renewals. They have also done mandatory training to qualify over a period of at least two years and been tested for competence.

On average,  a mechanic is paid around £12 an hour to fix your neglected, damaged, manky vehicles

You all, I'm sure have a fair idea of the sacrifice that goes into training for Law or Dentistry, with no earnings for three or four years and they end up earning less than a cleaner !

It's all a bit farcical to assume a cleaner is worth as much as anyone who practices medicine, or law, or is closely monitored and has to comply with more legislation each year.

The story of the individual carpet, four floors up taking 3 hours and charged out at £300 is as crazy as it gets

It could have been done in a third of the time by someone going in prepared and priced accordingly. I'm afraid this is really a case of some one being ripped of and there can be no reasonable argument.

I know Dave has a number of fans and for good reason, but anyone can do the same training and buy the same products, none of it's new.

Sure you must charge prices which will give you reasonable earnings, but what's wrong with putting in an honest days labour, like the rest of the world at reasonable rates, which can be  regarded as value for money, by clients.

Little point in going on as there is no definitive hourly rate for the various works involved, but everyone who aspires to running their own business or wants to get the most from it could do worse than learn about .

Effective Marketing
Cost Control
Time Management
Added Value, etc.

[liahona]

Rob, you are quite correct in no definitive rate for anything really.  But to defend myself, not that I need to as its only you that would appear is happy we work for very little but anyway.   

 The carpet had a value of £6000 so to clean it for £300 is considerably less of a charge than someone charging say 40 or 50p a foot for a carpet worth maybe £720 for the same size.

I was allowed into the property unsupervised.

Trusted to look after the clients "nick naks" as they needed moving.

Trusted to not rip them off with my charge which £300 clearly isnt.

Trusted not to damage the pathway from the first door to the room needing the clean.

If I had charged or anyone else would have charged a £100 which you think is fair, then I nor they would have got the job. 

Portable, not acceptable

Anything dry, not acceptable

What I do and did, acceptable.

Have a go at me because you cant cope with what I do, fine.  Please dont suggest I rip off anyone when clearly and again you have no idea what you are talking about.

Best, Dave

P.S.  I choose to do what I do for a living.

As does a mechanic, also his choice.  So why do we care what they or anyone else charges. 

[Andy Foster]

Well said Dave.

The price you can charge is directly related to the value to the customer.
If you charge £300 to clean a £6k carpet you are effectively saving the customer £5700 on a new carpet.
Whether it takes you a day or an hour to do the job, the value placed on your service is well worth the price.

I do some insurance work on the pressure washing side of my business and I have done jobs where the cost of replacing or repairing the areas by any other means is in the thousands.
On one job, there was flourescent paint thrown up the side of a house, the builder they asked said it couldn't be cleaned and he would have to replace the bricks and repoint etc - cost £4500
I said I would clean it for £500 and they understandably snapped my hand off.

I did the job and they were very happy - time taken 45 minutes.  Rip them off... I don't think so; I did the job they wanted at the price they were more than happy to pay and saved them £4k.

Never had such a profitable hour of my life before or since that day, but I did not lose any sleep over the price I charged them.

I now pay kids to throw paint onto houses - 

Never confuse cost with worth.

[The Great One]

Getting silly again

Mechanics work from fitted out premises, which not only cost a great deal to fit out, but have commercial rates, water expenses, constant renewals. They have also done mandatory training to qualify over a period of at least two years and been tested for competence.

On average,  a mechanic is paid around £12 an hour to fix your neglected, damaged, manky vehicles

You all, I'm sure have a fair idea of the sacrifice that goes into training for Law or Dentistry, with no earnings for three or four years and they end up earning less than a cleaner !

It's all a bit farcical to assume a cleaner is worth as much as anyone who practices medicine, or law, or is closely monitored and has to comply with more legislation each year.

The story of the individual carpet, four floors up taking 3 hours and charged out at £300 is as crazy as it gets

It could have been done in a third of the time by someone going in prepared and priced accordingly. I'm afraid this is really a case of some one being ripped of and there can be no reasonable argument.

I know Dave has a number of fans and for good reason, but anyone can do the same training and buy the same products, none of it's new.

Sure you must charge prices which will give you reasonable earnings, but what's wrong with putting in an honest days labour, like the rest of the world at reasonable rates, which can be  regarded as value for money, by clients.

Little point in going on as there is no definitive hourly rate for the various works involved, but everyone who aspires to running their own business or wants to get the most from it could do worse than learn about .

Effective Marketing
Cost Control
Time Management
Added Value, etc.

I would have to disagree with the comment about cleaners not being worth as much as the other professions.

Yes our training time is very little in comparison but without cleaners they would have to close all the hospitals, surgeries, etc as they would not comply with H&S. Cleaners although considered the low end by some of the public are actually the people that allow others to have the facilities they have.

Regards

Martin

[carpet guy]

I, am Mr Average...........You, are a carpet cleaner

I can not extract or carry out remedial work on my teeth
so I go to a qualified dentist

I can not present accounts to satisfy Inland Revenue
so I pay a qualified accountant

I can not repair my gas boiler
so I get a corgi registered plumber  and so on.

I can very easily clean my carpets by either hiring or purchasing a machine it would cost me about £50 to hire a machine with adequate product to do the entire house.
so I can save anything between £50 and £400    I don't need you !

The concept of 10% of value, is all very well, but if a carpet cost £1000 three years ago and takes 15 minutes to clean, the client is not going to consider " the perceived value of the service " they are going to consider whether £100 for a 15 minute job is " value for money " The client will balance this charge against their earnings, or other services charges, to decide what represents " value ".

The fact that you have a cost to get to the location is of no relevance to the client, everyone else has similar costs, but the electrician who spent an hour fixing a fault, the technician who fixed the washing machine ( both jobs Mr Average can't do safely ) only charged £50 and they have workshops to pay for.

If you overcharge you are only shooting yourself in the foot and you will find more difficulty getting getting work.

Charge a reasonable and fair rate and you will be as busy as you want to be.

There seems to be a growing number of jokers who only want to work part time but get paid as much as they would for full time working. Those people are the real con merchants, they try to justify themselves and their high charges, but in reality THEY ARE  RIP OFF MERCHANTS.

I AM NOT AND NEVER HAVE SUGGESTED CARPET CLEANERS SHOULD WORK FOR PEANUTS, but there is some absolute nonsense being written.

If you are unable to make a decent living from charges which return you a net profit of £20 - £40 an hour you are not running an efficient business and simply bumping up your prices will not help you.

Even at £20 an hour (Net) and working like the rest of the world, five days a week eight hours a day, you will earn twice as much as the average tradesman.
I reckon 90% of carpet cleaners in this country would be ecstatic to be taking home in the region of £800 per week after expenses.

Boasting about big earnings for little effort does nothing for tha morale of the majority who are out there each day grafting.

What they want to hear is, how to get the best from their equipment, techniques that will speed up their cleaning time without compromising quality, effective ways to get and retain clients.

Just to clarify something

I have never charged bottom end prices although I started with low prices. I have always charged around the middle of the pricing table, but have always had high productivety which means my hourly rate would exceed that of people who charged at higher rates and took a lot longer. Current charges are giving a gross hourly rate of £50 - £75, depending on the type of work.

Monkey / Peanuts.............don't think so. 

[Ian Gourlay]

I was telling my mate abot Dave the other day.

My mate owns a High End wooden flooring company does work for Stars such as Elton J ;Dohn etc.

His vision of Dave was uniformed quiet unobstrusive comes and goes and you would not notice he had been there apart om the clean carpet

[Ian Gourlay]

For Clarrification

I am refering to work from the time you arrive to do clean to the time you leave.

For me to acheive £100 I would need to charge £100 plus for a bog standard 12X12


It could be I need to adjust to £66 an hour as it takes longer to set a portable up on such jobs and do not have such high overheads as say Dave Lee  ( Depreciation on EQUIPMENT  OVER A 4 YEAR PERIOD) 

[Neil Grainger]

Guys

Carpet Cleaning is what I do to bring the money in, But I am also a business owner who deals with contracts, Health and Safty issues, marketing and Finance.

Those that are just carpets cleaners and think that £100 is to much should wake up and smell the roses. It needs to be around that to make it worthwhile.

You own a business, Carpet Cleaning is what you do to bring the money in but without the other stuff you would not be able to do the cleaning.

I have a portable and Monday to wednesday will bring me in £1500 this week probably for less than 15 hrs cleaning time, Never had 3 days at the start of the month like it. £100 is out their, you just need to work behind the scene's to get it.

Not every Job works out at £100 per hour but if I did not reach it that often whats the point of doing this. Do i rip them off no, do they come back yes, what are they buying, ME!

Lawyers that only earn £75 are not very good, around here you are looking at £200 plus an hr.

[gwrightson]

paying top money for any service , whether it be c/c  decorating ,house cleaning gardening and even shopping does not mean to say that the hired person is ripping them off,
quite simply some people will pay whatever the price is, and if it is 20 times more than the norm so what!!! They want the best and are happy to pay it.

I could give you figures you would not believe for services and jobs undertaken for somebody not too far from me. they want the best, they get the best........ why ? they can afford it , it is irrelevant to this type of person what things cost.

an example.  £3,000 to plant a tree yes £3,000 and that is not for the price of the tree and with 200 trees been planted along a private road its a nice tidy sum

the same person spends £500 to have the cars valeted   ,£500 per car that is.

so money is not in question to some people, so Dave,s prices , imo are not a rip off nor extortionate.

geoff

[Andy Foster]

If you are unable to make a decent living from charges which return you a net profit of £20 - £40 an hour you are not running an efficient business and simply bumping up your prices will not help you.

What complete and utter rubbish, how dare you tell me what I should be happy with earning and that my business is not efficient if I need to or wish to earn more than £40 an hour!!!

If we all listened to your advice then we would be leading lives of mediocrity, working 8 hours a day, 5/6 days a week just to make a decent income.  Instead we strive to make our and our families' lives better by increasing the value of our businesses and as a result our incomes. (Currently I am working 7 days a week at least 10 hours a day to get myself to this position by the way.)

I say, charge what the market allows you to.  By doing this, you not only give the customer what they want at the price they expect, but you also increase the image of the industry as a whole making life better for everyone.

I'm glad I didn't listen to people like you when I was starting out because I would probably still be punching a computer for a living.

There is too much emphasis on what can be earned on here and not the lifestyle that can be achieved.
The lifestyle YOU want determines the price YOU charge and the hours YOU work. Simple as that.

Yours truly vented.

Andy

[Mike Osbourne]

Carpet Guy

Who do you think you are, the Income Police? What gives you the right to determine what people charge.

You have brought up this comparison with doctors and dentists before, so what if we earn more than them. It's their choice how much they earn just like us in our business.

Is one of these Hip Hop rapper idiots worth tens of millions? Well obviously the kids think so. Is a Nurse worth no more than £18k ? apparently not. The world isn't fair and your not going to change it.

Your post ought to carry a government health warning.

Warning reading this post will seriously damage your income and self worth.

[carpet guy]

Don't get your knickers in a twist children 

I've already told you that I take between £50 and  £70 an hour occasionally more. Have earned a lot more in the past when employing.

Just reckon there are a few fiction writers around forums. A bit like Pub Talk and the newer, or less experienced in the industry must wonder what the reality is.

Had a look at your site Mr Foster, interesting name. " Does it relate to your charges ?"

If you only get one side to a discussion it's boring and achieves nothing, you need some one to stir up controversy and at the same time encourage the people at the lower end of the earnings ladder. They constantly get insulted with conceited and demeening comments, not from everyone, there are plenty fair minded and well intentioned posts to encourage the new and the inexperienced, but I never could stand the type, who constantly tells you how well they're doing.

Anyway I shall leave you to your back slapping self congratulatory selves and not keep you from your fantastic and enviable lifestyles.

Bye

[Andy Foster]

Had a look at your site Mr Foster, interesting name. " Does it relate to your charges ?"

    

Not sure what you mean to be honest.

[carpet guy]

You mean you chose that statement, without considering the double meaning ?

[Andy Foster]

The name is 'AF Systems' not sure what else it could mean?

If you mean my strapline, then of course.

[carpet guy]

WOW   : : :

[Andy Foster]

WOW   : : :

Strange... very strange!

[colin thomas]

the only thing i would say on this thread is that i cleaned a 2 bed appartment the other day, 3 flights up and it took me 2½ hours and the customer was over the moon. did dave use a stair tool to clean that carpet? for someone with so much experience he seems to take a long time to complete a job!

colin

[carpet guy]

 Colin                                                                                                                         Naaaaaaaaaaaaa   I'll take a back seat !


Andy
It was supposed to be subtle sarcasm !

[Simon Gerrard]

The truth is that earn rates are a matter of swings and roundabouts. Yeah, sure you can earn £100 per hour on some jobs and less on others and a lot less on some others, but so what, as long as you make the living that you think you're worth.

Simon

[markpowell]

ITS NOT WHAT YOU EARN ITS WHAT YOUR LEFT WITH AFTER PAYING ALL YOUR OVERHEADS, IF YOU HAVE A NEW VAN AND TRUCKMOUNT ALL ON TTHE TICK THEN YOU PROBABLY NEED £100 AN HOUR. A GUY WITH A VAN THATS PAID FOR AND A DECENT PORTY CAN HAVE THE SAME LIFESTYLE ON £40.00 AN HOUR.
MARK

[carpet guy]

 A good and reasonable post Simon

I intend to please many of you by stating " this is my last posting on this subject and possibly any other subject on here I'm well aware that I get up a few noses, but never maliciously and I only ever attempt to offer an alternative view or address the balance when I feel untruths or exagerations or just plain stupidity is posted, which is quite often "

Back to Simon's post
                                                                                                                                                           Some, in fact many people, have no understanding of the concept of "Worth " just as some have no concept of " value for money "

Many will go through their entire lives undervaluing themselves, just getting on with it, it's a shame, particularly when many are giants among their fellow man, in their contributions to their profession, trade, or just their workplace. But it's the way it is.

They may cry themselves to sleep at night, or develop ulcers, from inner frustration, but nobody notices and those who benefit just take them for granted.

Natures " pecking order " controls all of us and the vast majority slot into their box, without realising it and go through life blissfully unaware or unconcerned about how others see them.

Then there are the Mavericks who " do it their way " They can be spectacularly successful, some have huge successes and equally huge failures.

Helping people along the way is admirable and positive, but everyone has their level and I just feel it's unfair to offer false expectation.

Motivation, yes, but reduce the size of the carrot, stop offering unattainable dreams to people who will never achieve them, realism is moderation.

Be Happy

[liahona]

Colin, it took me about 15 mins to clean the room, so not sure how much quicker I could have been.  The rest was set up and take down as I had explained, thats what took the time.

Best, Dave.

[colin thomas]

dave, sorry, but that was my point, i run a truck-mount and i don't take that long to run hoses into and out of a job, ever.

colin

[liahona]

Colin, each solution hose apart from the one to the wand is put inside another vac hose.  No not a vac hose that is being used to recover the solution with.  So it looks like I am using two vac hoses and no solution line. 

This means there is no contact between any solution hose and any floor or textile within the property.

The hoses are then tied with shoe laces around the banisters, door hinges or wherever I chose so as not to pull against anything, well as much as poss.

I use shoe laces as they are less marking than any straps or bungee cords and I therefore have more control of what could be secondary damage to the clients property.

There are of course corner guards used on all corners wherever they may be and sometimes, but not on the job I am talking about now, I will use corner guards on the stairs them selves.  I even use corner guards on the outside of a property to protect steps and or corners.

I also used two air movers, stacked at the entrance doorway moving the inside air out so as not to bring in outside ambient air into the building.

There are a few etceteras but I am sure you get my drift.

The above takes time to do............

Best, Dave.