Clean It Up
UK General Cleaning Forum => General Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: TVCS on February 20, 2008, 04:03:00 pm
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Hi all,
Went to look at a job today, and if you can remember the life of grime programme, that should give you some idea as to the state of the place.
The house of an old boy who enjoyed his drink who is now residing in a hospital.
The whole place is knee deep in papers magazines, wine bottles, fAg ends, bags of god only knows, sh*te everywhere. the kitchen has chicken carcasses rotting on the serfaces the work tops are totally coated in sh*te.
The toilet is in a league of its own. The bog is totally blocked, the bath was the next alternative, when that blocked up the floor and a little plastic box was used.
Now. We have never undertaken a job of this magnatude before. We are keen to put a price in as we could do with the work.
A question to anyone in the know. When it comes to the toilet what is the best way to tackle it? It is pretty much full with old poo but it is dry. is it best to just dig it out and try to get some water in there and maybe agitate it a bit?
The rest of the job is a case of bagging up all the rubbish.
The chap only wants us to 'Find' the carpets then we can asses the state of the capets as regarding cleaning them or just removing them.
As far as pricing goes we are thinking of just working on a good day rate.
obviously we will be fully kitted out with overalls, gloves, face masks etc but would really appreciate any hints/tips or advice anyone could offer.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
Ant
TVCS
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Hi ya mate
welcome to the world of Xtreme cleaning, firstly i appreciate your ppe but please be aware you should be wearing full face masks, at the end of the day your carrying out a bio-hazard clean.
I would first spray the property and the toilet with an anti microbial and leave it to react for at least half an hour, all your cloths, sponges that your gonna use need to be disposed of afterwards to stop cross contamination, no eating or drinking or answering your phones whilst your in the property, use your vehicle as your clean area rembering to de clothe (overalls) disinfect your hands and boots before entering each and every time.
As for your toilet it's unlikely you will soften it up with out using some sort of a strong cleaner or other but you've got to take into consideration the damage that this might cause to the toilet, I would probley bucket it, see if their is an outside sewage drain and empty it down their a bit at a time not to cause any blockages, don't use any metal products to clean or scrap the toilet cos this will mark and damage it.
As for attempting to clean the carpets if the guy was an alcoholic and possibly in the later stages he may also of been incontinent therefore if he's got any diseases of any sort those could well be in the carpet within his feceas or urine, using a portable carpet cleaner will contaminate the air and therefore put you at risk, carpets really need to be disposed of.
Their may well be vermin within the property (mice, rats etc) the tenant may well of been diabetic due to his drinking theirfore their may be needles or other medication laying about, think about your safety before you think about pricing the job, also your exposing your staff to an xtreme clean are they immunised to carry out such cleaning, not trying to put you off mate just trying to make you aware that it is a specialised job, try and gather as much information about the client as possible.
Now to the bit that you really wanna know pricing without seeing some photo's and knowing what size the property is, their are a lot of factors invoilved but a rough guild would be for a 2 bed property including a van load of waste £1200-£1500 at the lower end
Good luck
Richie
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Pro-clean.
many thanks for the great reply.
I know it is a very big undertaking, so I will be taking it very seriously regarding health and safety.(I`ll let the wife do it!!!) ;D ;) ;D
I think the carpets will be scrapped in the end of the day, the chap who is looking to get it done is a friend of the owner. The family came into the property only to remove any money or silverwear. As far as he is concerned, if we can find the carpets for him he will be chuffed. He said that when all the bulk of the waste has been removed we can discuss what happens to the carpets, rugs etc.
Regarding the anti-microbial spray can you recommend a good supplier / website/ or type? We have found some full faced masks with breathing apperatus and all in one disposable coveralls.
I have to speak to the chap again tomorrow and I will clarify with him about the needles etc. We did not see any today at the property. From what I can gather the owner of the property is not that old but thanks to the wonders of booze has messed himself up pretty badly.
Please can you go into more details about 'immunising' regarding staff. Sorry to sound like a joey but I'd like to know as much as poss about this type of job. . The only staff doing the clean will be me and the wife.
Many many thanks for your imput
Ant
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Hello, With regards the blocked toilet the best thing would be to get it jetted. I would start at the manhole and jet the line that serves the toilet, when thats clear I would use a mini hose from inside. When these blockages dry they prove to reoccur because its almost impossible to clean round the u bend of the toilet without jetting. Ring round and find a local firm - don't get them dayglo lot
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Good idea BDCS.
Why the warning for the 'dayglo lot'?
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Ant
anti-microbials their are various product and suppliers out their it really depends on the extent of the job ie does it smell, are their any other occupants in or that may be affected by the use of anti-microbials, health & safety states that you may require to inform and receive their written consent before use, i'm not sure if the sponsors of this forum "express cleaning supplies" supply anti-microbials or equivalants, i don't think it would be fair of me to go promoting other companys cleaning products on here but with that said and done i will leave you my e mail and you can e mail me
As for your masks they should be at least pp3's, despite what anyone tells you, you are cleaning a bio-hazard area and it's to your and your staffs benefit to carry out your own risk assessment and assume that the place is infectious and that sharps of some discription whether it be needles, razor blades or others may be present, we exercise as standard an initial sharp and infectious control assessment on every xtreme clean that we do.
immunisations again coming back to health & safety it's required that you must provide your staff with the minimun protection (ppe) and the necessary immunisations, this may vary depending on the extent of the work that you do, make an appointment with your local GP explain the work that your doing and they will give you the necessary injection at a cost, again this varies depending where you live, i believe it's between 2 or 3 courses again depending on where you live.
This type of work opens a whole can of worms concerning health & safety, insurance, waste licence, first aid etc most of it will come with experience and can be very profitable.
Anyway late in the day mate for the want of a better word i'm knackered, i will leave you my e mail and my website addy if their anything we can do to help give us a shout.
Richie
rich.procl@btconnect.com
www.pro-cleanxtreme.co.uk
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Hello, With regards the blocked toilet the best thing would be to get it jetted. I would start at the manhole and jet the line that serves the toilet, when thats clear I would use a mini hose from inside. When these blockages dry they prove to reoccur because its almost impossible to clean round the u bend of the toilet without jetting. Ring round and find a local firm - don't get them dayglo lot
hi ya mate
from experience this is the last thing we would do due to the fact that it could add to the problem by causing more of a mess and pushing the blockage backwards but in some cases we have had drainage engineers that have done this but only under agreement of the tenant and the additional cost that may be incurred, if it's solid up to the u bend take the toilet off, take it out side and pressure wash it and deal with the remainder of the piping with some rods or a drainage engineer.
cheers
Richie
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Jetting the toilet from outside would'nt cause any mess as the residues flow away to the drain, If you think taking a toilet off thats full of poop would be less messy then good luck to you. I charge £70 for this type of job as its easy with the correct gear and know how.
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Jetting the toilet from outside would'nt cause any mess as the residues flow away to the drain, If you think taking a toilet off thats full of poop would be less messy then good luck to you. I charge £70 for this type of job as its easy with the correct gear and know how.
Hi ya mate
wasn't ment to step on anybody's toes here and i'm not a drainage engineer, although we have worked along side of them for many years, as i understand it Ant hasn't got the equipment or the know how and he's starting out in this type of work, just trying to hit things from a different angle, many of our clients will actually ask us to remove and dispose of the toilets after all would you like to use a toilet after somebody could of been HIV positive or in the last stages of alcoholism and the extrement contains more fatty acids, blood and body tissue than normal due to the damage the alcohol has done to the internal organs.
we have often been called out where inexperienced engineers have tried this and have caused more problems, the reason i said in my last post we would only accept this on the basis of the client agreeing any additional costs is for that reason, price wise we use several drainage engineers including national company's and price range from £90-£120+ over bank, christmas holidays etc.
cheers
Richie
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hi pro-clean, i was wondering if you can give me some advice. i am expanding my business to cover trauma scene cleaning, just waiting to go to the flood school to recieve the training, the advice i am looking for is this, just approached the local council, they asked for all the information on my company, also health & safety & coshh which we dont have a problem with but they also asked for our basic charges, ie callout charges and the like, i would be really greatful of any information you can give me regarding this matter,
thanks, robert
my e-mail robert.cdi@blueyonder.co.uk
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Hi ya Robert
I would first like to say that chris & Lawerance at the nfs have got a wealth of experience and i'm sure you will thoroughly enjoy and find that the course is worth every penny and remember it only takes one job to claw back what you pay out on the course.
When it comes to pricing obviously it vary's from area to area and from client to client, for instance we carry out work for the social services and their alway tight or skint, the council arn't far different but your selling point will be your health & safety, insurance company's and private clients tend to be better payers.
As i've said in previous post pricing depends on many factors if it was your local drug addict who's presumably had aids and he holded a lot of furniture in his 2 bedroom flat and left uncapped needles all over the place and had his head blown off then their are different factors here to consider and different pricing stragetys, we would consider this a needle stick clean up (search) as well as a bio clean up, we don't actually price any of our work until it's completed, a reasonable rate would be between £60-90 per hour per person plus your cleaning material, ppe, cloths, waste etc.
On the other hand if it's was just an old fella that had collapsed, cut his head open and died but his flat was clean and tidy other than the obvious mess and you were cleaning just the room that he died in, which wouldn't take you more than a couple of hours and very little cleaning materials or waste to remove, around the £60 ph mark is a reasonable price.
We have priced jobs far lower for regular clients ie councils, housing ass etc, i hope that gives you some indication on how to price, i believe their are other people on here that do bio cleaning maybe they can add to the above.
Cheers
Richie
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thank you very much richie. those prices where what i had in mind, its just the call out charge that had me confused, how much can anyone charge for this? and that was one of the points they wanted answering.
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Well chaps. Our quote has been accepted. :o
A big thank you to everyone who emailed me or posted replies to this thread because it certainly opened my eyes regarding this type of work. fair play to the lot of you!! It also helped me to come up with my price. Pretty much double what I had first worked out.
Thanks for the input regarding ppe and chemicals.
The clean now doesnt involve any carpet cleaning, just rubbish clearing and carpet finding. We still have to tackle the loo. :(
I know this is only my first clean and I am very green in this area but who knows, if this clean goes ok I may be looking to attend some training courses in this field. ( lets see how I get on with the bath of poo first ;))
If there is other tips you feel I would benefit from knowing, do tell.
Many thanks and appreciate your time
Ant
TVCS
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If you get any grief unblocking the toilet or wastes contact me and I will talk you through it - my contact details are on my website
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We have done quite few bathroom cleanups over the years due to drain cleaners blasting through without taking adequate precautions.
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thank you very much richie. those prices where what i had in mind, its just the call out charge that had me confused, how much can anyone charge for this? and that was one of the points they wanted answering.
Hi ya Robert I for got to answer your question concerning call out charge if you look through the yellow pages the buzz word for the last few years is no call out charge just add it in with your price for the sake of £50-100 it isn't worth loosing a job, if your called out at 3am on a cold winters morning people are gonna expect to pay a bit more, so i would put no call out charge personally, and this includes bank and christmas holidays.
Ant
Glad to hear you got the work, i'm sure your be fine once you've started, remember to take before and after photo's and dot down some notes of how you did the work for later reference, as for the loo obviously their is a chemical option, i suggest you advoid this if possible both for health and insurance reasons , reading back through the post if the loo is full to the brim and your suggesting that it's dry it may just be the top crust for want of a better word ;D i would still go with the initial thing dig down to the u bend investigate how far it's blocked, their are plenty of gadget that you can use to unblock it down at your local diy shop, if your gonna put anything metal down their be extremely careful that you don't mark the toilet, other wise the client has a right to make a claim against you and given the opportunity they will, try tipping hot water down after your investigation but make sure you have warmed the toilet slightly before so as not to crack it and then cling film the top to keep the smell in whilst the hot water works and then try plunger it and if all else fails then dismantle the toilet and rod it to keep the cash in your pocket, if your not sucessful by all means grab a drainage enginer but make sure he knows what he's doing like in all trades you get some right eidiots out their.
Good luck mate keep us informed.
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Cheers pro-clean. I havent flushed our loo now for 6 days so I can have some practice at the end of the week. LOL
I will take some before and after photos and if they look ok I may post some ;D
Thanks for the cling film tip and the warming of the pan,
I start the job a week on monday so I'm sure that I will posting like mad closer to the time with last minute panick questions.
We had a Hep A and B Jabs on friday , and going shopping on monday for all the PPE, ( well the stuff we dont have already)
Ant
TVCS
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hi, can anyone give me some advice on where they buy there supplies from
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Thanks BDCS. I may take you up on your offer. Hopefully not but who knows.
This is the throne in question.
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thats sick!
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doesn't look much like sick to me ;) ;D
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It depends on the angle you look at it from - It looks like a pot of gold to me
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thats a poop job! ;) good luck with that one, i would vomit even going a metre near to it!
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i tell you what you guys earn your money makes me feel sick just looking at picture
fair play to ya if you can do it but not for me.
would not care how good the money was.
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The toilet is the worst bit of the job and the bit I am least looking forward to.
The rest of the house is like the photo below, mostly papers,magazines and wine bottles and the occasional porn mag dotted about the place.
At least at the end of the job I can relax in the bath. Some unusual bath salts seem to be in there at the mo ;D ;D :P
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The living area
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jesus i would rather be dead than clean that joint, sorry mate, :(
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dont apaologise, the price I put in more than makes up for it. ( I hope) LOL ;D ;D
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like i said you earn your money
its not for me
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BDCS.
I had a good look today and couldnt find the gold you were on about. LOL ;D ;D
depends on the angle you look at it from - It looks like a pot of gold to me
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have you finished this ant?
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Hi
With the bath, i would fill it up and either use Caustic Soda, or Spirit of salts and leave to soak overnight.
It will strip that bath and do all the work for you, then you can spray with anti bacterial and clean normally.
Be careful in the living area, needles and other sharps.
Regards
Martin 8)