Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: richy27 on May 13, 2010, 08:49:16 pm
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thinking of setting up a rug cleaning plant.
i am lucky enough dad has a farm and has spare building 40ft by 60ft he has let me hae at a minimal rent. seem to do a lot of rugs these day and seem to permanently have about 10-15 at home and want to increase this.
has anyone got any pics of plants they have set up or any advice.
regards
Rich
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Hi Rich
Take a look at Art of Clean or have a chat with Paul Pearce. What Paul doesn't know about rugs.........!
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had this idea sitting on the back burner for a while, but i aint got a relative with any building that are cheap so can't justify a unit at around 15k a year, and thats without a receptionist.
go for it rich,
i was gonna go for the stack em high sell em cheap mentality unless its specialist. but i'm sure it would work with a stack em low sell em dear mentality too.
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Dave Liahona's your man to ask, he had a big plant in California, 8)
you can contact him on the CCDO site.
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Richard
The set up of a cleaning plant is the easy bit. It's the drying room that could be more troublesome. Blowers are essential and in a room that size, dehumids will be as much use as a chocolate teapot :( Unless you can create a smaller, enclosed room within.
Obviously you'll need power and some insurance for both theft and fire in particular.
Knowing farms as I do, you need to be cautious about bird access/droppings and also those bl00dy little rodents
Safe and happy cleaning :)
The Ken
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thanks for the replies guys
Ken good solid advice as normal. the plan is to build a separate room with a roof so completly enclosed to dry and store rugs. floor space is smoth concrete. the buiding will be bird and rodent proof. also will be enough room to keep the van in when cold night s come back
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The best plant I have seen is at Franklins in Sheffield.
In 2002 the early version of the Sunny day out included a tour of this place .
Pre inspection and documentation was a much emphasized part of the process, this was the fll time job for one person.
The rug beater they had was amazing, it removed piles of grit from coir matting and rugs alike AFTER being vacced with a Sebo.
The rugs were then taken up a conveyor belt to the next floor where they were mostly immersion cleaned and rinsed with a pressure washer.
After this the excess water was extracted.
They had racks made of scaffold for drying and air blowers to speed it up.
One room was dedicated to rug repair , and this included the repair of holes 150mm across not just a few tassles, though they were putting new fringes on a few rugs.
At the time they had a national contract with Johnsons and had dozens of rugs on the go. Well worth a nosey if you can blag a tour.
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Hi
Theres a website called "the rug hub" its run by Dusty Roberts the man who sells the rug badger lots of info on there including a very very long thread about peoples small rug plants should give you some food for thought.
Sorry don't know how to do a direct link to the site but google rug hub and you'll find it.
Regards
Eddie
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http://www.therughub.com
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Got to agree with Jason. Franklins set up is well worth having a look at.
From what I remember, they had a fleet of vans collecting rugs and ferrying them back to HQ.
The good news is that they are a long way from you so maybe there's a big market for you.
Garry
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Thanks Nigel
Just had a look a rug hub today they have changed the layout the thread i was talking about is under "area rugs" at the top under "mini Plants"
Hope that helps
Eddie
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I sent a rug yesterday to franklins, dropped it off at Johnsons. they said it would be back in 2-3 weeks, it was 2.7 x 1.6 and cost £75
I rang Franklins first at (8.10am and they answered the phone ) and they quoted £45 if I took it at their factory.
this was to clean an Oriental rug that cost £1200
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Ill do it for £40 ;)
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at franklins prices I could charge £3 a foot ( see advert banner above) drive there, drop them a few rugs off, pick them up and still make a good profit
dave I'll keep you in mind if I get any more :D
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Franklins - fleet of vans - pah!!
I go past once a week and they have 1 carpet cleaning on site van and 1 van for odds and sods of local pick up and delivery of beds and also a van for pick ups from Liverpool and Manchester depots which sound big but aren't.
Franklins are into easy step wipes and Johnsons.
Shaun
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wasnt you the tea boy at franklins shaun
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good holiday Billy ?
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wasnt you the tea boy at franklins shaun
Thats why Shaun drives past every week , he takes the tea in a big urn for them.
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Big earn! I get it!! ha ha
Shaun
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If you go to the top of this page you might find all your rug cleaning answers
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I went on same initial training course oas Art of Clean but i believe he went out tostates etc.
My pan was to set up in my Mothers garage as she only used it ptting 15 plants a year.
First Big Problem was getting roomclean but as Ken said the biggest hurdle is drying and the cost of drying.
To make it worthwhile you need tobe drying severalrugs at a time
If you can overcome
Number of Customers required a week
I think its worthwhile/
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thanks for all the help with this . should hopefully be up and running by the end of the year. by mid next year i would be able to supply a service to other cc where they can courier rugs to my plant and get them sent back. i will have fixed charges depending on size and rug type and whatever you wish to charge on top is your choice.
dont ask me how much yet as i havent worked out costings.
email me your details if you want to get more info when i am up and running
info@pt-cleaningservices.co.uk
ps sorry if i have broken any forum rules with this post and please delete if i have .
regards
Richard
i am just getting a feel to see if there is a market for this service
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thanks for all the help with this . should hopefully be up and running by the end of the year. by mid next year i would be able to supply a service to other cc where they can courier rugs to my plant and get them sent back. i will have fixed charges depending on size and rug type and whatever you wish to charge on top is your choice.
dont ask me how much yet as i havent worked out costings.
email me your details if you want to get more info when i am up and running
info@pt-cleaningservices.co.uk
ps sorry if i have broken any forum rules with this post and please delete if i have .
regards
Richard
i am just getting a feel to see if there is a market for this service
If its not for your own commercial gain then you'll be fine :-X ;D ;D ;D ;D
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I built a 16x14 shed from wood and lots of insulation for drying. Ive a garage for cleaning.
Main problems is drying in winter.
Cleaning rugs in ones and twos isnt overly profitable unless you can get big money.
You need defined areas for storage, cleaning and drying on top of your other storage needs for equipment etc as things will get into a mess very quickly.
Moving large rugs esp chinese is difficult for one man.
I find coming home to clean rugs at the end of the day a major downer but rolling out of bed at 8.50am and into the 'plant' at 9am rather enjoyable.
Mainly collecting and drop off is a pain as they arnt in till after 5pm and by that time your the other end of the city having to fight the traffic.
IMO if your going to spend big money on badgers etc then make sure theres a market for rugs weekly and not every now and then.
MArk