Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Derek Romeril on November 29, 2010, 02:57:52 pm
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Hi all,
Just wondering if you CC's offer add on's like carpet repairs, general tidy ups & re-stretching as a chargable extra?
As standard practice, before we even start to clean a carpet, we do a quick 'tuck down' around the edges, and if ness. do a quick stretch back onto grip. I've seen a few vids on Youtube lately where CC's don't know how to or can't be bothered to tidy up the carpet first & it simply looks awful. Should this be part of a CC's remit? Is this not a great way of making even more cash?
Just a thought, cheers
CTS
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Some are a bit reluctant to fork out in the first place for a clean - desperation drives some to it.
Now you saying to the customer before you start - would you like the carpet stretching? Only cost you £xx pounds more.
Not something I will be offering for other reasons as well.
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I have a customer who offers exactly this service.
He considers himself a carpet CARE professional not a carpet CLEANING professional.
He will do exactly as described (and more) if required.
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I will often refit onto doorbars , cut off stray threads and put carpet onto grippers where people have lifted it to put cables down , it is a very small percentage that have any of the problems you describe.
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Its how the customer sees you that matters not how you see yourself.
I am a fitter and a cleaner. Often when a custy calls you to clean a carpet they will ask if you can sort ripples out. Any professional carpet fitter will know that its not just a matter of stretching with the knee kicker, as 'Bubbles can't be removed that way, and ripples are often the result of delamination. Stretching delaminated carpet makes it worse.
Having said that, there's nothing wrong if you want to offer to tidy up first
If the thing is off the grippers and is a potential shrinker then it may be worth just getting it back on and Ive done this on numerous occasions as a norm, but don't consider it separate enough to charge extra.
Offering a re-fit and clean is something else an can be a good earner. Often get asked to re-f it a used carpet into another room and then clean it.
I think most CCs wouldn't want to bother with any fitting, being satisfied with just the cleaning, and not wanting to complicate things.
Some years ago I did some fitting for a new company to our area. I wasn't with them long as they wanted fitters to carry out the whole job, which included, sorting out uneven and damaged floors, shortening doors and leaving extra on stairs for moving every six months etc. It's no wonder they didn't last long as they couldn't find any fitters prepared to do it all.
Dave.
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It wont be unsightly or uncomfortable to walk on , if it is , as is the case on almost all cases of this type , behind a tv ,sofa etc ...
Sheesh , I may be a carpet cleaner , but I am not retarded.
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Or, if you wanted to do it properly, you would fit the cables between two lengths of gripper. ::)
As Jason has said, the need to carry out repairs are few and far between - and as Dave has said, invariably the carpet can't be re-stretched because the backing has delaminated.
Furthermore, there is more money in cleaning than fitting, a client is far more likely to pay £50 an hour for cleaning than the same for repairs. After 29 years of fitting and 14 years of cleaning, I can state this with confidence.
There are a few of us on here that are time-served fitters who now predominantly clean - so I don't know where you are going with this thread.
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Or, if you wanted to do it properly, you would fit the cables between two lengths of gripper. ::)
As Jason has said, the need to carry out repairs are few and far between - and as Dave has said, invariably the carpet can't be re-stretched because the backing has delaminated.
Furthermore, there is more money in cleaning than fitting, a client is far more likely to pay £50 an hour for cleaning than the same for repairs. After 29 years of fitting and 14 years of cleaning, I can state this with confidence.
There are a few of us on here that are time-served fitters who now predominantly clean - so I don't know where you are going with this thread.
Fitting cables between two lengths of gripper is pointless and time consuming - that is very old hat which I haven't heard of for a long time.....
On the contrary, I could do that a lot quicker than cutting back underlay and then taping over cables and it is a more professional finish, plus I can charge for the extra gripper.
When repairs need to be carried out then by using simple techniques and at a price a CC within a short space of time could easily make those remedial repairs and earn more money, that was the original idea of this post to give an idea to CC's to generate more income and offer a better service to their customers (I hope you don't mind that do you Steve?)
I don't mind at all.
Are you still fitting carpets? 54% of our income is from fitting and I can assure you that our clients pay a great deal more than £50 per hour (especially border work & durafit).
Yes I still supply and fit, I'm sure you do get a good price for border work, but that is an extreme example and nothing to do with this thread which is about repairs.
You may be an 'old hand' carpet fitter wedged on this board, but probably 99% are not, let them make up their own minds about offering this type of service.
I've been on this board for a number of years as a carpet cleaner and I offer advice on fitting as and when it's requested.
Cheers
CTS
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Mmmmmm!
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and theres the punchline
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CTS
Your pretty new here and with your first posts your trying to sell something (not sure what) maybe a course on carpet repair etc People on here dont take kindley to that kinda thing, we already get a ton of calls during the day from telesales...
In the 11+ busy years i have been cleaning carpets i have only been asked once if i do repairs to carpets (fair enough i dont advertise that i do). I do have a pair of sciossors on me at all times to cut the odd dangly yarn sticking out of the carpet, but thats as far as i go with with carpet repairs.
Also, Steve is a well respected member of this forum with quite a few years of cleaning and fitting experience under his belt. He's always been willing to help people with thier carpet cleaning and fitting/re-streching/carpet problems questions over the years, so attacking him really wont get you far! I'm 100% sure he wasn't having a go at you but more so pointing out a few facts..
On a positive note :) how much could you generaly charge for doing a bonded insert?? I see a few iron burns and f*g burns in carpets. The customer never asks me to sort these out as i think they just decide to live with them. But if i could turn round and say, "hey, i can fix that!" then that would be pretty cool.
Also, am i right in saying that if the carpet is worn then a bonded insert will look crap? Only best done on a new carpet?
Tony
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like steve said, why fanny around doing things like that when you can move on to the next clean. time is money.
i cleaned an upstairs carpet a couple of weeks ago and charged £60. when i arrived the carpet fitters were there, (2 of em) starting to fit a lounge carpet. when i finnished they asked me for some cards so i returned the favour and asked how much for a lounge like that to be fitted, £30 came the reply. i took my £60 for 30 mins work and got out of there quick. ;D
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Steve,
I am not going to enter into childish banter with you as anyone reading this can see you are trying (unsuccessfully) to justify your lack of knowledge on current fitting standards.
May I respectfully request that you consider attending one of these?
http://www.fita.co.uk/courses_info.php?courseID=1
Offering helpful advise and belittling other peoples posts on here are two seperate issues.
Those CC's who would like to offer that extra service don't be put off by Steve's negative thoughts.
Cheers
CTS
As it happens I considered your reply to my post to be extremely belittling, but I chose not to take offence, and then you go and repeat that behaviour by suggesting I go on a basic training course, while knowing nothing of my background.
But hey I've got thick skin - and I have no desire to enter into childish banter either. So why don't we start again from a professional standpoint, or we can simply ignore each other.
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Tony , I must be a cowboy , I dont carry scissors ,I use a stanley for all those loose bits and burns I cut out ;D
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I use a pair of these bad boys! :) your pinky fits that wee hook just fine!
Also good for giving your nostril a trim before a quote :) its important to be presentable and all that ;D
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Good, apology accepted and I apologise if you took offence to my post.
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There seems to be a trend of young know it all wippersnappers on here
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Thanks for the reply CTS. Food for thought.
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Not just YOUNG Garry....................this is a mature 51 year old with letters after his name :-* :-* :-*
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Not just YOUNG Garry....................this is a mature 51 year old with letters after his name :-* :-* :-*
Still a young wippersnapper to some of us eh! Robert
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As a carpet fitter and retailer myself I know what a bunch of arrogant idiots the majority of carpet fitters are. Although cables should not be fitted under carpets it is a practice that is carried out. The safest way to do this with any cable that caries any charge is in between two grippers. Anybody can find an easier or quicker way of doing it, this is not modern practice but corner cuttting. Damage to cable is not possible to see from the outside they are like wheel bearings all the damage is internal caused by the internal friction of the wire rubbing together it is onlyposible to stop this compression by making a solid channel with the gripper.
I am all for anybody becoming a competent fitter and offering the service described but again from 20 years of experience the money is in the cleaning. The people that have the damage, badly fitted carpets, fAg burns, badly fitted doorbars etc etc, always ternd to be the lower end jobs where the price for your time become unrealistic. People at the quality end normally have good quality well fitted products. I will go for long periodswithouot even touching my fitting tools. Carpet fitters at present are 2 a penny the flooring market has gone through a bad few years so I would not reccomend anybody go into fitting to compete with the many that are scratching for work. We get several c.v. s sent to us all the time. It is the same as a lot of things once you have invested in the training and the tools you would have probably been better investing that into taking your core business forward.
Peter
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As a carpet fitter and retailer myself I know what a bunch of arrogant idiots the majority of carpet fitters are. Although cables should not be fitted under carpets it is a practice that is carried out. The safest way to do this with any cable that caries any charge is in between two grippers. Anybody can find an easier or quicker way of doing it, this is not modern practice but corner cuttting. Damage to cable is not possible to see from the outside they are like wheel bearings all the damage is internal caused by the internal friction of the wire rubbing together it is onlyposible to stop this compression by making a solid channel with the gripper.
I am all for anybody becoming a competent fitter and offering the service described but again from 20 years of experience the money is in the cleaning. The people that have the damage, badly fitted carpets, f*g burns, badly fitted doorbars etc etc, always ternd to be the lower end jobs where the price for your time become unrealistic. People at the quality end normally have good quality well fitted products. I will go for long periodswithouot even touching my fitting tools. Carpet fitters at present are 2 a penny the flooring market has gone through a bad few years so I would not reccomend anybody go into fitting to compete with the many that are scratching for work. We get several c.v. s sent to us all the time. It is the same as a lot of things once you have invested in the training and the tools you would have probably been better investing that into taking your core business forward.
Peter
Absolute RUBBISH
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All I want to know is ... Where is my mate
simon ooops I mean Derek cts
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Jay... Got a bit of carpet that needs fitting and afew fAg burns that need cutting out. When can you do it?
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I am not qualified I am afraid , no customer trusts me , as my credentials are not listed after my name .
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I am not qualified I am afraid , no customer trusts me , as my credentials are not listed after my name .
Its alright its only an old bit of carpet anyway - can I borrow your stanley knife please and have you got a licence for it ?
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Bye Derek ::)
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As a carpet fitter and retailer myself I know what a bunch of arrogant idiots the majority of carpet fitters are. Although cables should not be fitted under carpets it is a practice that is carried out. The safest way to do this with any cable that caries any charge is in between two grippers. Anybody can find an easier or quicker way of doing it, this is not modern practice but corner cuttting. Damage to cable is not possible to see from the outside they are like wheel bearings all the damage is internal caused by the internal friction of the wire rubbing together it is onlyposible to stop this compression by making a solid channel with the gripper.
Exactly how I do it Peter and certainly the safest way and best practice. If the modern method is to cut the underlay back and tape over the cable, then I am happy to be called a dinosaur.
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I hope you all feel ashamed of yourselves!
you scared the poor bloke off and he was only trying to be helpful :D :D
if he was genuine then he needs to understand how these forums work, and get a bit thicker skin,
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I feel that the way he answered Steve Barnett was out of order. The biggest problem I have with my business is subcontracting the flooring very often you will explain to the fitters the specification that you have sold the customer but despite them being unaware of why or what you have given the customer in the remit they will still take it on themselves to do things their way. Most of the time because a lot of the preparation etc is not visible they think it will never come to light.
It is basic common sense, despite the safety aspect with power carrying cables, computer, telephone and alarm cables are very easily damaged and quite delicate. If not protected from compression they can easily be damage by foot traffic or simply by moving furniture it does not take a genious to understand that. The cost and inconveniece of moving furniture in order to peel back the carpet to make a repair is a lot more than the little extra time in taking a few minute extra to do the job properly in the first place.
As I have said earlier carpet fitters are normally obnoxious and arrogant at the best of times, Anybody can take short cuts but in the long term it is worth going the extra mile.
Peter
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Jeez what happened here?
Posts deleted, people arriving and leaving.
And then the big debate on who knows carpet fitting the best ;D
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Neil i am no sherlock but it looks like the phantom poster strikes again :-[
Reckon the post he made to steve was a case of in one ear out you know the rest
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Presume you mean running the wire over the middle
of the carpet.
Won't you feel the grippers underfoot.
Would have thought running it round the edge would
be easier and safer.
John
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As new start ups are slow to get off the ground and generally sluggish for a year or some. The answer may be to learn the basic techniques of fitting and repair. Then if the opportunity comes along, do a repair or fitting to fill the day when you are quiet. When you are busy carpet cleaning, as said more money can be earned cleaning, so you probably wont want the hassle of fitting too.
Once you turn that carpet back, all horrors of a bad original fitting job can jump out at you and can be very time consuming to put right for which the custy probably won't fully appreciate.
Dave.
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Presume you mean running the wire over the middle
of the carpet.
Won't you feel the grippers underfoot.
Would have thought running it round the edge would
be easier and safer.
John
John, imagine the gripper doubled up around the perimeter of the room, the cable is laid between the two runs of gripper.
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I couldn't fit a carpet for toffee compared to people who not only have been trained but doing it day in day out for years. However as a carpet cleener it's important that you are able to secure a carpet before cleaning. If you want to do repairs like reweaving you ideally want to be able to lift and refit to as good a standard as a professional.
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As Dave said it can seem simple in principal but many of the things you will get asked to do are are a lot more complicated than just fitting a new carpet. One of the most common requests is refitting used carpets into different rooms and this is something that most fitters will not at all the rest will not do without loadfing the price considerably. It will take you longer to determin whether a rolled up carpet will actually fit a room than it will to fit a carpet that you know will fit a room.
Peter
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Cheers for that Steve, presume we're talking the thicker power
cables here as opposed to my telephone line to the computer.
I run that between gripper and skirting taped at intervals.
A thicker cable wouldn't work like that.
John