Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: john meehan on September 21, 2007, 07:41:03 pm
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hi guys would £50 be the right price to charge for cleaning 3piece suites all replies most appreciated thanks john
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John
I'm not principally a suite cleaner (although I've been there, done that etc.), but as a seasoned member of the forum I think this is quite a low figure. Of course it depends on the type of suite you're talking about and its condition, but I'm sure other members will no-doubt add comments to this effect.
Regards
Pete (JS2)
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No, £100 - £150 is about right, they take about 3 1/2 hours (well it does me) and they are hard work.
Did 2 in one house today and was paid £300.00! :)
Phil
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I charge £85.00 sometimes £90.00 but cant seem to get any more even though i have tried, then again our area seems to be getting saturated with cleaners. It has never been as cheap to buy new suites as it is today, then again i am happy to do 2 1/2 hours work for £90.00 dont see the need to drag it out any longer, never had any complaints.
Mark
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Mark, you have to go to the right places to get more money, you wont get £150 in a Council area (no offence like).
I agree, £150 to clean a £600 Argos suite is not possible.
I dont drag it out either, that's how long it takes me. ;)
Phil
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I'm with Phil on this one. Unless it's very lightly soiled or very easy fabric £140 is my minimum. I'd prefer to put the hard work into finding those who will pay it and then persuading them why.
I take at least 3 hrs on a 3 piece and to clean the equivelent carpet I'd expect about the same, so why should it be any different for a suite.
As always where you live and the people you serve has to be taken into consideration. If I worked for my neighbours I would never get any work at all but 2miles down the road....
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Not bothered how long they take to do but what you do do!
I clean them and dry them, did one today albeit cushions did not remove 1h20min very bad around head area turbo dried and touch dry, but for 50 quid?? don't forget they can hire a machine themselves if they want it as cheap as that!
Ask what the customer wants, and they will often pay for it.
Shaun
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Hi John
You have to work out your costs and what you would want to earn per hour,so if you want to earn £30 per hour and a 3 piece suite will take you 4 hours to clean then charge £120
Mark
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Gents ( and others ) when you started cleaning suites, did you all pitch in at the top end of the pricing even although you were inexperienced and therefore by anyones reckoning, incompetent ?
Or were you honest enough to appreciate the need to learn your craft first and charge at a more acceptable level for someone with little or no experience.
In other words..............were you like the " cowboys "who are constantly ( and quite rightly ) slagged for not giving value for money but in many cases charging large sums.
If I found a novice turning up to do a journeymans job at journeymans rates, he would be sent on his way.
So why would you encourage a novice to charge maximum prices for work which most of you agree is more complex and prone to disasters than carpet cleaning.
I'm not suggesting your individual charges are wrong, just suggesting that they are unrealistic for a novice and I have seen the results of many novices over the past 20 years.
rob m
Ps...............there seem to be a lot of wimps coming into c/c these days judging by the time it takes to carry out carpet and suite cleaning
I know the response to expect, but taking longer does'nt guarantee a better job, so please don't bore me about how wonderfully thorough you are.
If you are still cleaning in the same way after 20 years I might listen but I would probably feel you had learned little in the preceding years. Oh, and I average around 90 minutes per suite at £50 per hour, but I'm still young at fit at only 62.
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OMG..............just read the 4 hours for a suite. Someone is in the wrong business.
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Good post Shaun, are you saying give the customer what they are prepared to pay for
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we charge £30 per seat but this is not typical for the area i live in
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what you charge for a suite is about how good you can sell yourself, that's why new starters charge low prices they can't 'talk the talk' so don't project a image that is worth paying £140 for.
the £600 suite from DFS is a bit of an urban myth, although you can buy one often you'll need an extra chair & Pouffe so the price goes up to over a grand. I've been looking for a new suite for a couple of months, for every cheap '£600 suite' I've seen I've also seen 10 suites for over £2000, so their is no need to worry that the retail price of suites will effect what we charge.
Mike
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Charge as much as you can because what you will find charging £50 you do a good job when they ring you back in a year or 2 and your price has doubled or even trebled their perception will be your ripping them off.Confidence is the key.
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3 to 4 hours is average time for me with setting up and packing away to clean a suite.
Mark
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Just thought the forum needed a little livening up ;D ;D
From past and present posts it's obvious that there will never be agreement on pricing and due to the way people work what each customer costs to service etc, etc there will never be a set price for this type of service.
I'm well aware of marketing plans and business school suggestions, etc, which tell you to charge what the market will stand. But there is always the ethical and good value side, which assumes you to have the knowledge, experience, actual ability, to deliver.
If you can't deliver, you will damage the reputation of the industry, so, charge what you like, but if your service does'nt live up to your hype , your marketing, or your level of charging, you will be paying out a lot more to get each job than some others.
It's about balancing the income with the true cost of each job.
rob m
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IMO
Its all about time, effort, results, customer's needs and expectations. Therefore price accordingly. Im with Marke Lane-Matthews on this one. I dont care who you are, but working flat out for 3hrs to achieve the greatest possible clean, we logically cannnot achieve the same when done in an hour or so.
If the custy wants a relatively quick clean for £80-£90 then fair do's. If she wants the nearest it can get to new again requiring cleaning some areas 3 times, then thats fine too but will cost double.
We dont do the first ;)
Kev
p.s. When I was in a franchise, roughly the whole network would take this amount of time to clean a suite properly, although it is fair to say that some people's perception of a great clean is different to others.
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40 years ago in another life I worked for Courtaulds textile research laboratory and had to go to factories in and out of the group to solve problems. I was about 25 at the time and an old hand told me that the factory did not know I didn't have the answers and wasn't an expert, "just tell them you need to do some tests and come and ask me" If you don't tell them they won't know.
Start as you mean to carry on, if you have the training (you have, haven't you?) then charge a proper rate. After 25 years in the business it still takes me 3 to 4 hours to do a suite properly. £25-£30 per seat would be the norm. When I put my prices up dramatically a while ago I lost the rubbish and gained the better jobs that are not too dirty to start with, its a long time since I scraped the grease off an arm.
Trevor
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I would like to know where carpetguy bought his magic wand from.
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No magic wand MLM
I have would not get the repeat and referred clients year after year if I wasn't doing a satisfactory job, this is another of the posts that keep coming up and get much the same response each time.
Your comments remind me of the carpet fitters and plumbers who would sit around tapping at pipes or flooring for half an hour.
Occasionally a suite will take me two hours, but around one and a half is more likely, and just for the record. After removal of surface debris and dry soiling, I either prespray with m/s or use dry foam with a brush, or sponge, or glove mini mop.
In 90% of cases this is followed by rinse / extraction.
Finally, a white towel is used to confirm that the edges are as clean as possible.
No magic, no tea, or coffee, just keeping up a momentum. Probably at a higher workrate than anyone who is taking 3-4 hours.
No wonder some of you don't like suites.
Oh ! I'd better " come clean " I don't waste time on the backs , or sides, they are cleaned according to the degree of soiling, which in most cases is slight.
So my financial return, per hour, is much the same as yours, but I still have time and energy, to clean the lounge and maybe h/s/l plus a bedroom, or two. Suites are very rarely done on their own.
If you are getting around 10 jobs per week, WITHOUT ADVERTISING and don't even give out cards and find people with a newspaper advert which was last placed in 2000 ad, but the client has kept, and even although you changed your mobile number a year ago, people go to extraordinary lengths to find you, then you can tell me who is doing it right.
Always listen and look...............you might learn something to your advantage.
have a good life
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Good luck carpet guy ,sounds like you are the ultimate cleaning machine.Out of interest do you put protective covering down before you start cleaning such as PVC sheeting and dustsheets, or are you so skilled that you are accident proof therefore never need to so also saving time ,unlike the rest of us.
Mark
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Pedantic or what....................
I have always used cotton , or linen sheets, as the use of non porous sheets would be prone to spills when taking them out.
I'm sure there are many who work in a similar way to myself and take a similar time to clean suites and I forgot to mention. I use turbo driers when necessary.
Funny thing is I am not claiming to be super duper, or attempting to justify a high charge, or claiming to be better, just because I take longer, to achieve a similar result.
In my earliest days I once took almost 5 hours to clean a suite, which was fithy and included nicotine staining. I learned from that experience.......I was not adequately prepared and suffered the consequences, but, I LEARNED FROM THAT EARLY DISASTER
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Carpetguy:
So if the backs and/or sides of a suite are clean then you would leave them and just concentrate on the rest of the suite?
best Rgds
Will
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Not what I said Will and not what I do !
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Carpetguy:
So you didn't type " I don't waste time on the backs , or sides, they are cleaned according to the degree of soiling, which in most cases is slight"?.
Will
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We take approx 3 hours to clean a five seat suite, we cleaned a two and three seater today in sunny sunderland, charged the customer £150 and they were delighted with the results, We put down plastic sheets and cotton drop sheets over the top before any work commences, then we pre vac the whole suite, pre condition then rinse and dry with 5 turbo dryers
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It takes us approx 3 hours to clean a suite properly depending on degree of soiling and fabric type and whether it's a 321 or a 311.
Will
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Will
They are cleaned according to the degree of soiling...................thought that was clear enough !
I and I'm sure the vast majority of people, who clean carpets, or suites for a living, clean each area " according to the degree of soiling " otherwise and this would be pointed out on ANY competent training course, you are wasting time and money, by using chemicals where they do not need to be used !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are wasting time, effort and the same chemicals, on areas with minimal soiling, as on traffic lanes, or the more heavily soiled areas of suites, you are being just plain stupid and wasting product.
As the backs and sides of most suites are considerably less heavily soiledthan the rest of the suite, common sense, good time management and good business sense dictates that they require less cleaning than the more heavily soiled areas.
Maybe you just have'nt got to that page yet ???
Your comments about using FIVE turbo driers on ANY suite I'm afraid makes me wonder about your actual cleaning and what in God's name is going on in anyones head that makes them feel the need to carry out such a ridiculous act.
Taking longer does NOT make someone better, just as using the biggest machine, or having the biggest van doesn't make anyone better at the job they do.
You are happy with your mindset, which gives you the same hourly return as me, or does it, as you are saying " we take 3 hours, we put down, etc ". Does this mean there are two of you and it takes 3 hours, so you are earning half of what I'm earning
That's £25 per hour, which was my rate 15 - 20 years ago.
Try to remember, the purpose of running a business, is to make money. If you are only taking £25 per man hour you need to re think your strategies. Then you could have Saturday off.
I am leaving shortly, to collect my girls, returning from a cruise in the Carribean, so I will sign off and leave you, hopefully with something to think about.
rob m
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Non porous sheeting is laid first, cotton sheeting 2nd for obvious reasons.
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I heve to say when i started (about 2.5 yrs ago) I was taking 3-4 hours on a suite, my average now is 1.5- 2 hours, thats not cutting corners thats just fine tuning a process. most of my work comes from referalls or repeat business and ive never had a complaint yet. I do get some really dirty suites that take up to 4 hours but i can understand where carpet guy is coming from.
ollie
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Well said carpet guy i couldnt have put it any better myself, a little common sense.
Why on earth would anyone fire 5 turbo dryers up to dry a suite, Dear me
Yes £150 to clean a suite is good but when the funds are going 2 ways, the sums dont add up.
I only spend time cleaning the bits tht require cleaning and usually the backs and sides dont need the same effort or time as the arms and cushions !!!!!!!!!!!
Mark
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Carpetguy:
Firstly I think your getting me mixed up with another poster. I never said that I use five turbo dryers so I would appreciate it if you would read the thread again and direct your comments elsewhere.
I totally agree with you in that the backs and sides of a suite are rarely soiled.
However as Im sure you're aware water marking can be a problem on some fabric types. Granted, immediate turbo drying can eliminate this but to be on the safe side we would sometimes "Lightly" clean the backs and sides.
Best Rgds
Will
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90 mins to clean a three piece suite! sounds a bit slap dash 2 me, and it must be left wringing wet, I use 5 air movers so I can guarantee that the suite is dry enough to sit on before i leave the customers house! not everyone offers this service but if you speak to the guys that have a lot of respect in our industry like derek and john bolton they will tell you it takes longer than one and a half hours to clean a three piece suite
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I clean about 3 suites a week usually takes between 1.5to2hrs to clean thats prevac prespray then work in with tampico brush then extract and then towell dry dont usually use air movers i use a chemspec low moisture upholstery tool never left a suite wringing wet yet.
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yes darren but the Chemspec low moisture tool only cleans the surface and cant rinse the fibres I had one and got rid of it , it was useless and used loads of water
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Blaming the tools now Stu ???
I have always customised my machines and tools since starting in this business 24 years ago. Darren is on the right track as far as I'm concerned.
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2-2.5 hours dependant on size and soiling I leave them dry also infact I bet it's dry to sit on but I recommend that it is left for 1-2 hours.
Stuart 5 turbo driers! where do you find all of the sockets?
Shaun
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Ive been using the chemspec upholstery tool for over 2 years does a great job i used to have the prochem uphol tool used to get as much solution on the walls as i did on the suite.I got a new machine 300psi i find i have to turn the psi down when using the low moisture upholstery tool Stuart you dont have to soak a suite to clean it and then you will not need your 5 air movers to dry it .
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Shaun, all the air movers connect together so there is only one three pin plug, they are Clean care air movers 1hp each,I dont have to use five air movers but find that using five will always leave the piece of upholstery just about bone dry, Also three of them blow out heat as well, I have used as little as two air movers but I can't guarantee them dry before we leave! i always have room in the van so why not ? as for the low moisture tool,I pirchased about ten years ago after doing an IICRC low moisture upholstery cleaning coarse, I diddn't gell with it and found it used a hell of a lot of water! a friend of mine also stated it just about emptied the fresh water tank mon his Bane, In fact you are the only person that has said anything good about them, I am not confusing it with a CFR low moisture tool, this is a differant animal altogether
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I am suprised you would need to use a towel after cleaning with the Chemspec low moisture tool, it hardly wets the surface!
Dont get me wrong I love chemspecs products just ask Julie Roberts, I just dont like there low moisture tool as i dont think you can get a thorough clean with it, it only cleans the surface fibres and thats ok on cotton prints but thats about all!
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Might get 5 turbo dryers, then start cleaning with an hosepipe ;D
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Someone said you already did ! ha ha ha
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Stuart have you got a contact number for those turbo driers?
Shaun
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2-2.5 hours dependant on size and soiling I leave them dry also infact I bet it's dry to sit on but I recommend that it is left for 1-2 hours.
Stuart 5 turbo driers! where do you find all of the sockets?
Shaun
Yeah, the dial on the custys leccy meter must be spinning faster than the blades on the driers themselves :o. I would never use anything other than an upholstery tool. Safety first, result second (abeit a very close second).
Pete
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Shaun, I bought them from a guy in Darlo about eight years ago when he was a Cleancare dist, he only sells santoema now, But you might still be able to get them from Cleancare direct 0207 639 0778
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Thanks Stuart, don't forget to tell me when you are in West Yorkshire next.
Shaun
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Shaun! probably end of next month, in castleford