[andrew stone]

Like many i think, i much prefer cleaning carpets to suites.
my mate today said he would gladly clean 2 suites per day 5 days per week if he could get that volume of work 48 weeks a year!
myself 2 per week does me.
at his current charge of £150 per suite cleaning 480 suites per year he would gross £72000.
assuming expenses of £10000 this would leave a pre tax net profit of £62000.
i said he would be completely knackered after 1 year of this amount of suites.he thinks not.he takes about 3 hours per suite.
purely hypothetical do you think you could do it? i know i couldnt!

out of interest what percentage of 1 man band carpet /upholstery cleaners make a net pretax profit of £62000?
in your estimate.
i know i dont!

andrew

[Mike Halliday]

suite are about 30% of my business, to do suites full time i would have to refuse a grands worth of carpet cleaning..... its just no viable

i could clean 2 suites a day, most of the suites I clean have a maybe bad arms and a bit of head grease i never get really minging suites, did one today, i only cleaned half of it.... thats all it needed

[L.Doubtfire - The Blade Runner]

Andrew,the average soiled 12 cushion suite ( Dralon) takes me
Anything up to one and a half days starting or arriving at the customers
House at no later than 9am.Leaving the customers house at 5.30pm.
On 2 occasions I `ve cleaned an elderly gentlemans 12 cushion Dralon
Suite,both were pipe smokers,one suite was 8 years old,the other was
12 years old.Started Monday morning,finished at Wednesday noon.
Used 200 terry cloths on em`both.Takes ages to launder, the nicotine etc.
The only time I could clean 2 suites in a day would be if they were both
4 cushion cottage suites lightly soiled.
It`s getting the customer to part with £450 plus,even for a superb finish
Without getting the grandkids on ya back.
Suite cleaning it`s horse work.


Lewis  Doubtfire

[Jim_77]

[Jim_77]

I could clean 2 suites a day 5 days a week, no sweat.  And still fit in a house full of carpets

[wynne jones]

Andrew,the average soiled 12 cushion suite ( Dralon) takes me
Anything up to one and a half days starting or arriving at the customers
House at no later than 9am.Leaving the customers house at 5.30pm.
On 2 occasions I `ve cleaned an elderly gentlemans 12 cushion Dralon
Suite,both were pipe smokers,one suite was 8 years old,the other was
12 years old.Started Monday morning,finished at Wednesday noon.
Used 200 terry cloths on em`both.Takes ages to launder, the nicotine etc.
The only time I could clean 2 suites in a day would be if they were both
4 cushion cottage suites lightly soiled.
It`s getting the customer to part with £450 plus,even for a superb finish
Without getting the grandkids on ya back.
Suite cleaning it`s horse work.


Lewis  Doubtfire

This is meant to get a rise out of us, right? 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I used to do quite a few but thankfully it's mostly carpets now I just kept putting the prices up to get rid of the mass amounts this lasted until I couldn't sell at any higher price you do need to get some of them but to take up the slack I pushed carpet cleaning, best thing I ever did as I tend to earn more and work less.

Shaun

[Colin Day]

Andrew,the average soiled 12 cushion suite ( Dralon) takes me
Anything up to one and a half days starting or arriving at the customers
House at no later than 9am.Leaving the customers house at 5.30pm.
On 2 occasions I `ve cleaned an elderly gentlemans 12 cushion Dralon
Suite,both were pipe smokers,one suite was 8 years old,the other was
12 years old.Started Monday morning,finished at Wednesday noon.
Used 200 terry cloths on em`both.Takes ages to launder, the nicotine etc.
The only time I could clean 2 suites in a day would be if they were both
4 cushion cottage suites lightly soiled.
It`s getting the customer to part with £450 plus,even for a superb finish
Without getting the grandkids on ya back.
Suite cleaning it`s horse work.


Lewis  Doubtfire

This is meant to get a rise out of us, right? 

I had to double check my diary to make sure it wasn't April the 1st....

[wynne jones]

Whilst I'm not keen on doing suites on there own, I do quite a lot of whole house and suite jobs in nicer properties and just make a day of it.     

[andrew stone]

Lewis

one and a half days to clean a suite?!

no offence  meant but what do you do with them?

i average 3 hours and get quite a lot of repeats and recommends.

andrew

[Nick Attwood]

I would be more than happy to clean 2 suites a day, in fact I'd love to clean 2 suits a day, and like Jim would be happy to do a carpet job in between.

Man I love upholstery

PS. 1 & half days to do a twelve cushion dralon   maybe there is a typo and put days when meaning hours?

[Ricky M]

What a bloody boring job it would be just cleaning suites , must be brain dead to want to do just that all day every day !!

[Jim_77]

Gents I think Lewis is in the latter part of his cleaning career, and maybe does things like upholstery cleaning with more traditional ways than many of us.  Maybe those two things combined together mean it takes that long

[garyfindlay]

Maybe an updated version on "watching paint dry"

Watching a dralon suite dry

[Simon Gerrard]

Andrew,the average soiled 12 cushion suite ( Dralon) takes me
Anything up to one and a half days starting or arriving at the customers
House at no later than 9am.Leaving the customers house at 5.30pm.
On 2 occasions I `ve cleaned an elderly gentlemans 12 cushion Dralon
Suite,both were pipe smokers,one suite was 8 years old,the other was
12 years old.Started Monday morning,finished at Wednesday noon.
Used 200 terry cloths on em`both.Takes ages to launder, the nicotine etc.
The only time I could clean 2 suites in a day would be if they were both
4 cushion cottage suites lightly soiled.
It`s getting the customer to part with £450 plus,even for a superb finish
Without getting the grandkids on ya back.
Suite cleaning it`s horse work.


Lewis  Doubtfire

Slow down man, what's the rush

[derek west]

can i ask why guys don't like cleaning suites?

[Craigp]

I can't stand them either.

Derek I think when I started there was more dralons around which was easy and great results.

All I seem to get now is polyester chenille s that do come up but take huge amount of effort and recleaning and the cusions on the bottom that are sat on often don't clean so well, ground in denim dye ect.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I don't mind cleaning them but I prefer carpet cleaning as it yield better/more money.

Shaun

[derek west]

I can't stand them either.

Derek I think when I started there was more dralons around which was easy and great results.

All I seem to get now is polyester chenille s that do come up but take huge amount of effort and recleaning and the cusions on the bottom that are sat on often don't clean so well, ground in denim dye ect.

what sort of chems you using?

i have never put any real effort into cleaning suites, pre spray, dwell, tickle with a brush, dwell, rinse extract, then touch up what dint come out with a different approach chem. jobe le doon. (sorry, just had garlic) job done.

ps... i stand corrected, those really really big cushions are a bit of a pain on your back when doing the rinse run. and i sometimes get lactic acid build up in my anterior delts but apart from that. peace a pee.

[Neil Williams]

What a back aching time consuming job suite cleaning is, even if you do take short cuts like just dealing vacuuming back and sides.
The trouble is getting the price and today was another example.
Phone call from asian sounding person "How much you charge to clean sofas?"
Drag out of her it's fabric and a 3-2 suite and sounded like stool too.
£140 says I (and keep quiet - he who speaks first and all that)
About 10 seconds later she says "does that include vat?"
I went with "yes." (and kicked myself for missing the chance to boost it 20%)
Another 10 second pause before the words "I'll phone you back" were said.

So if you could get 480 suites at £150 I still wouldn't be interested in wrecking my back, and what I'm also saying is you'd be lucky to find enough people to pay it anyway.