Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Paul Redden Countryfresh on September 02, 2008, 08:08:56 am
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Cleaned some commercial carpet tiles, nylon 225 sq yds, basically empty, moved some boxes ( took about 15 mins) 4hrs in total. With porty.
Was thinking of £1 a sq yd .....am I on the right track.
Cheers Paul
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no
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Try tripling it
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I did the village sports and social club yesterday,very very dirty low pro carpet,covered in beer wine f*g ash and god knows what else,my feet were sticking to the floor ! 5 hours in total,went in low as there are lot`s of very rich members total of £420, about 800 sq ft came up very good,used p/chem double clean.
My poor new Sebo duo is now filthy :(
Were very happy and bound to get people commenting,did want to put up a wall plaque saying carpets cleaned by me,but didn`t get around to it :( also got offered gym membership at reduced cost (not sure what they were trying to say >:(
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PLEASE do yourself a favour and stop carrying out commercial work without a quote beforehand!!
In commercial work it's highly advisable to provide a written quote and get it SIGNED before you even open the door of your van!! 9 out of 10 this'll be unnecessary but the 10th one will p you around.
I'm in court soon to get 400 quid out of a firm who flatly deny I was ever in their building cleaning the carpets the cheeky f******s!! Just because I "can't provide any evidence that the works have been carried out", in other words I haven't got a bit of paper with a signature on it saying the job was done. Bit difficult if I was in there on my own with a key to lock up, but hey... learn a lesson, get a paper trail in place before it's too late. There's nothing worse than not getting paid :(
The other problem you get with working without a quote is you may get a customer who thinks they're going to get a bill for 50 quid and you price the job at 500. Some people haven't got a clue what sort of thing to expect, and you may well lose them for repeat work if you give them a nasty shock. Get the cards on the table beforehand, commercial customers are different from domestics.
But aside from that, a sensible price for the work would probably be in the 350-400 range. Mark's "going in low" at 52p a foot isn't low at all and I think he knows that, just trying to be a bit flash ::) No offence meant, just the feeling I got from reading the post! ;)
If you were quoting to win the job you'd probably not get it at that price, you'd be under-cut either by a splash n dasher or by someone with a truckmount who'd probably do it for a couple of hundred, in half your time or less.
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Not being flash,it`s just in this village where i live there are lot`s of rich people who are members of this social club,i already had my foot in the door as such as i live just around the corner ( i am not a member of the club ) what i was thinking was that if some of the other members see what a difference i had made to the manky carpet,they are more likely to give me a call to do theirs ;D.
I should have charged another £200 on top at least,as there was a lot of furniture to move and replace before it opened in the eve ! carpet was dry when i put stuff back so didn`t have to mess around with furniture pads etc ;)..Just got to sit back and wait for the calls now fingers crossed !
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Jim
Wise words as ever.
Hope your case works out.
Roger
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"PLEASE do yourself a favour and stop carrying out commercial work without a quote beforehand!!"
Point taken Jim Thanks
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225 yards is about 205 metres. I would charge that at about £460
Richie.
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£420 for 5 hours work and should have been £200 more.??????
I think we're back to the subject of silly pricing again
Back to the origional question and £1/sq M on bulk standard commercial carpet is about right and at £56/hour is not to be sniffed at
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Mark, how are you going to clean your sebo?
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I did a job not long ago and the brushes are minging ::)
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I should have charged another £200 on top at least,
Are you saying 78p sq ft is the min you would have done this for? If you can get this much for commercial then you have done incredibly well to promote your services or just incredibly lucky, as most places wouldnt even accept half this.
I take my hat off to you Mark, although I suspect if you tried to quote this much all the time, it could well be your last commercial job for a while ???
Kev
p.s. how much is your domestic rate?
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The only way I have found to clean a Sebo Duo is to unscrew the bottom and unscrew the brushes and jet wash the rollers.
Is there an easier way?
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i thought what i charged was reasonable,funny you guy`s are the ones who all said i should put up my prices ! Having the duo just makes me even more confident i can get good results and happy customers ! priced up a partially carpeted 5 bed in c-bridge earlier today £217, she had e-mailed 3 other firms none of them got in touch with her ! i am really busy , it`s gone from not much for the last few weeks to being booked solid every day.
the duo i cleaned it after using it for 2 days with a stiff brush and cut the hair off with scissors :( but think i will have to take them out wonder if they are dishwasher safe (joke) forgot to mention there was also 2 sets of wide stairs and a corridoor
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The only way I have found to clean a Sebo Duo is to unscrew the bottom and unscrew the brushes and jet wash the rollers.
Is there an easier way?
Stand it upside down, turn it on, stick a strong fork in it - all the crap flies off in seconds. Job done.
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How do you clean your shirt afterwards? ;D
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Domestic rates start at .28p per sq ft ,thats for lightly soiled wool,polly i do for .25p but also take other stuff into account,like distance from home ,parking,how long it will take me , furnished or not,weather or not i really want to work for said customer.Did a 3 bed last week quoted £250,she had had another quote he was £500 so assume he went in high as he knew it was going to be a mare of a job,which it was.but i was happy earning what i did :)
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£620 for half a days work.............................in your dreams, Mr Williams.
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Carlton Care
I think Neil was quoting someone else.
Neil was advocating £1 sq yard.
I have lost commercial at £1.20 sq yard (very large area) and won at £1.40 sq yard which was a large victorian house converted to commercial.
I cant get domestic prices out of commercial clients - no way.
If I got £300 for the 225 sq yd in the original post and it took 4 hours I would be happy!
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Apologies Neil :-[ :-[Just read it again and realised I'd done something I've accused others of doing many times.................not reading the post properly
Joe
Spot on and what I'd go for.
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Incidentally, if anyone is getting tangled up with feet, yards, metres etc there's a great little converting program I found on a building supplies website, it converts loads of stuff:
www.quadlock.com/about/unit_converter.htm
Well worth having!
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The way i look at commercial jobs is they are not paying really as it comes out of the tax at the end of the day.So why not go in high, have been the only one quoting on quite a few of the com ones,letting agy even tell me if i am in competition with anyone else,which helps,work still keeps flooding in so must be doing something right :)
Not had a single day off this week booked on fri and sat which is nice,however the wife is now saying she wants me to take her away on holiday :( but i want a stage 4 racing tsr cylinder head for my scirocco bout the same price as a holiday ::)
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Quote "The way i look at commercial jobs is they are not paying really as it comes out of the tax at the end of the day".
Mark - apply that to yourself the same way....
all the cleaning stuff you buy, all the training, new tools, even the new truck mount "you" buying with new van costing £30k, dont you shop around whan these things are necessary? .......... all of this "comes out of the tax at the end of the day".
Have you got anything left from your turnover to pay yourself, to build your Scirroco, to take the wife on holiday.
Sorry, it does matter to them what we charge.
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Suppose so yeah,left with a reasonable amount :) spent £170 on chems last week inc the duo,then spent another £85 yesterday p/sprays etc so yeah it`s costly as you know,not sure what bit of kit i will be getting next prob a new vac as my tennant is a bit battered now after over 4 years of abuse,will get a sebo vac i think ;)
And to shopping around i am a tight wad so i look for the cheapest possible deal when buying anything new, why i got my new sebo duo for £130 new ;D
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Hi Guys
Commercial is not much different to domestic , you win some , you lose some.
It's important to charge what you will be happy with.
I have a commercial Sat Morning 400 Pounds will take 3-4 hours.
Commercial is often unsociable hours and payment is slow.
It's important to work out how long and at what cost a job is going to take and then work out your required rate, but bear in mind that if you quote cheap then you may well end up working hard for not very much.
Cheers
Doug
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Exactly Doug ;D
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Was that £130 including or excluding VAT Mark, either way it is still the cheapest I have seen one for.
Where abouts did you get that?
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Yep inc vat,won`t be any more at that price though :( or i would by getting some more and selling them on.My mate works in the local cleaning suppliers and it was one that had been on display in the shop for some time,didn`t get any of the powder but i didn`t get it for that so not bothered.
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Yep sorry, I remember you saying that last week.
The powder is rubbish anyway.
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Well I've got one lined up tomorrow £150
These are rare so take them as and when.
It might take 2 hours it might take 30 minutes as basically my patience has worn out with a local builders who seem to make a right hash of what ever they do.
The forms have been signed and if I turn up and it can't be cleaned then the bill for £150 is going in.
Basically we've got a wornout polyprop carpet with plaster on it which has parted company with the backing, and isn't fitted to either walls or floor.
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Sounds like it's fitted to the ceiling, in a manner of speaking ;D