[Neil Mc Anulty]

Unfortunately I am not very good at maths.I have been trying to work out a price per square metre for the Dry fusion system. I did try it out and and taking the time cost of the Activator etc I have come up with the price of  £2. This would allow me to make £25 per hour. Does this sound reasonable?

[Len Gribble]

Neil

A good question

Although not up to speed with this system or agents, what else did you put in the equation to arrive at £25 per hour?

Has any one got a spreadsheet, say in excel which covers all your major costs in running the business, example van/equipment on hp/lease cost per hour = £X etc

Len

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi nr neil

Are you talking about residential or commercial work here?

RESIDENTIAL

Presuming the system is suitable for the carpet/soiling. How much would you normally charge with other systems to clean, de-odourise, protect and leave a carpet dry within half an hour? I regard Dry Fusion as a premium service/system and charge accordingly. IMO £2 is way too low.

COMMERCIAL

Same as the above applies but we have several varying factors. Clean or maintain. Small, medium or large areas. Daytime/evening/weekends? So your prices will vary. As a good rule of thumb, I will quote for initial clean at full price. On large open(ish) areas this will generate £80 to £100 per hour for a two man team. Maintenance work as a follow on at six or 12 month visits will be approx. £40 to £60 ph at something in the region of half the original cleaning price. It will be quicker/easier too. I will NEVER offer the lower price as a carrot to gain the work in the first place. It devalues you, your business and the system.

Safe and happy Fusioneering:)
Ken

[Neil Mc Anulty]

Hi Ken
I am planning on targeting commercial work to try and get maintance work aswell as one off cleans.

So far I have discovered in my locality that you very rarely get called for maintaince cleaning, but tend to get called when carpet or upholstery is in a salvage condition. The reasons are there have been so many cowboys in the past and present it has put most people off. Aswell as the fact that very few want to pay the money.

Len
The £25 was for my labour only. I cleaned  approx 45 sq m of low profile commercial carpet the cost of activator  was approx £36.

[Ken Wainwright]

Neil

Somethings wrong  £0.80p sqM for materials is  way off the mark. My maintenance is about £0.06p and one off heavy cleans about £0.24p. Have you attended the D/F training course yet?

Safe and happy Fusioneering:)
Ken

[Dave_Lee]

Neil,
Simple answer _ No you need to at least that hourly rate.
Dave.

[Neil Mc Anulty]

How much are you guys paying for 25l of activator. I was quoted £125+V.A.T. As I am not registered for V.A.T thats a total of £146.88.

The area I cleaned was approx 45 Sq M. I used 5l of mix and the job took nearly two hours from arriving to leaving.

Do you know if there are any courses available in Ireland ?

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Neil

I buy 4 barrels at a time which saves me about £8 or £10ish each. I also pay with order and recieve a little more discount.

Are you diluting your Activator correctly at 1:4 with hot water?   If you are useing it correctly,  5 litres of solution (not concentrate) at 1:4 mix  has  cost you £5.00 for the chemical which equates to 9p per M² plus V.A.T..  (1 LTR. concentrate costs £5, 25 LTRS costs £125)

I'd suggest phoning Dry Fusion to ask about their courses.

Safe and happy Fusioneering:)
Ken

[Neil Mc Anulty]

Hi Ken
Sorry to annoy you again, from the previous posts I may have used too much soloution on the area.

I will not be attending a Dry-fusion course in the near future as I have ventured into cleaning supplies recently so the funds are temporary limited (hopefully only temporarily).

Anyway my method was

1 - Mix soloution into dry fusion mop bucket

2 - Fill another kentucky  mop bucket with just water

3 - Followed the instructions on the barrell of activator.

4 - When pad was dirty rinsed in clean water rung out and placed in Solution and rung out.

Does this method sound acceptable?

[nick.solution]

Hi Neil

perhaps you should condsider usig Super pad charly and Micro splitting chemicals tests show this method is 30% the cost of other systems and as, if not more effective

Best regards Nick

[Neil Mc Anulty]

Hi Nick,

To be honest I have only ever heard it mentioned on this site and never really researched it.
Can you tell me more about cost, equipment etc.
Thanks Neil

[nick.solution]

Hi Neil


Have sent Pm, micro splitting is very cost effective and safe chemical adding the super pad charly gives an alternative and again very effective method of cleaning around 2500-3000 super pads have now been sold with over 80% of customers buying more than one set, 1 set of charly pads will clean 10,000 sm of carpet. And can be used on pretty much any slow speed rotary machine, I'm sure Mike has a number of rotary machines availble at Express Cleaning Supplies.

Best regards Nick

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi Neil

Firstly, I've maitained acres and acres of carpet with cotton bonnet and microsplitting and have been delighted with the results. But for very dirty, especially cut pile carpets, results leave much to be desired. I'm now hearing many good reports (not via Nick, but direct from the horses mouth) that excellent results are being achieved with Charly's.

But back to your Dry Fusion query. My routine is:

Thoroughly vac with a powered brush upright vacuum. e.g Sebo BS36/46

Prespray approx 10 M²  with Activator or Release at 1:4 or 1:8 as required. 5 minute dwell.

Dunk Dry Fusion brand (VERY important) pad in Activator @ 1:4  Wring out.

Place pad on carpet and quickly attach machine and quickly spread solution over trafficked areas, then first clean/spread evenly over whole of area being cleaned. Repeat at 90 degrees. Turn pad over and again pad over the area to heat dry and cure protector.

Re-align pile with brush.

Why would you normally require a second bucket? I carry enough pads to clean all day, then launder. You usually have 20 pads in a starter kit and are the minumum requirement.

Quoted and booked a study, stairs and landing today. Immaculate home, clean carpets.  £156 but price wasn't an issue,  sold on the benefits of Dry Fusion. I was competing against 2 CD franchises, but she heard my name on the radio whilst driving, and repeated my number to herself all the way home in case she forgot it

Safe, profitable and happy cleaning:)
Ken

[Martin_Riley]

Is that because you were wanted for questioning by the Police Ken? I'd expect a very loud knock on your door tonight now that your new client knows how to contact you
Martin

[cleanmac]

Hi Ken

Who is your supplier for the cotton bonnets ,Prochem?
Also are they scrubbers or finishing bonnets.
I am testing microfibre ones (white with grey agitating strips),they are a bit pricey though.

Besides ,what is your opinion on the Dryfusion course?

Thanks


David

[Ken Wainwright]

Hi David

Yes, I use Prochem cotton bonnets. I also bought some which looked similar for less money at A&M Watford a few months ago. They are plain, looped, white cotton without scrubbing strips. I use them for maintenance (not deep clean) and sometimes to assist drying with HWE. Never tried microfibre or Charly. Had good results with the synthetic and synthetic/scrubbing strip bonnets too.

Like all training courses I have attended, I found the Dry Fusion course excellent and, IMO,  essential to get the best from the system.  Although I was familiar with 99% of what was taught, and most of it was specific to the system, you ALWAYS learn something. The opportunity to meet talented people from our industry is a bonus too. Hospitality and venue was excellent and I can't see how £20/£50 makes it pay for D/F. Obviously a case of just about meeting costs.

Safe and happy cleaning:)

Ken

[woodman]

Hi Guys

I have cleaned recently several domestic carpets using texatherm and I have been very pleased with the results as have the customer.The quick drying is obviously a major benefit and has gone down very well with my existing customers.

Admittedly this has been on  good quality wiltons and axminsters but nontheless I haven't come across yet a carpet I couldn't clean with the system and that includes Berbers which I did last week

As for price, I am not very quick with the system yet and the constant changing of pads is a pain in the backside
but I have kept my price the same as my extraction clean price. Seems to work well so far

Trevor

[Ken Wainwright]

Pleased to read you're getting on well with your new system Trevor.

I'm not aiming this as a criticism of you Trevor because you've been around long enough and have valuable experience and knowledge of our industry. But you've raised the issue of price differential between systems on residential work.

On these boards, we often read of many people who have been cleaning using HWE for many years. As they become more knowledgeable and successful, they decide to re-invest into their business. They spend much time researching alternative systems. They invest capital into this alternative technology. They invest time and money into training. Why? to achieve the same customer satisfaction as before with their HWE. BUT they give the added benefits of quicker drying. Maybe use the system as a problem solver e.g. Belgian Wilton. They may even be able to de-odourise and add a stainblocker at the same time. So, what do these people do about pricing? They frequently LOWER them!!!!!!!!  That's right, they give the customer the same as before, but with added extra benefits and want to charge less? It just doesn't make good business sense.

If you are offering an alternative premium service, with costs per M² higher than HWE, you should be charging the same rate or higher than your standard service. What other comparable industry would use that sort of logic?

Safe and happy rant of the day:)
Ken

[woodman]

I take on board what your saying Ken

but while I am still becoming accustomed to using the system I am happy to charge my normal rate for extraction cleaning.My price is much higher than £2 a sq mt anyway so I am well covered.

Once I feel I have become suitably proficient and have got quicker with the system then I will look at price again.

At the moment it's case of do as many jobs as possible with it just for the practice

Trevor