Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: daysdeepclean on May 12, 2009, 12:37:51 pm
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I don't know if the price range is right or whether this is the sort of question you may want to answer ??? I was asked the other day how much on average do Carpet Cleaners charge and I obviously didn't know the answer....
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colin
1 of the options should be
i don't charge by the square meter
cos i don't. and i preume a few other use "rack of eye" and guesstimation like i do.
derek
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Colin
I genraly try to work it out so that I charge at least £30 a hour
1st room takes a hour and a half with set up so at least £45
each other room, half an hour so 2 rooms equals £70 and so on
Neil
ps and lots for suites as I dont like doing them
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Same as Derek for domestics.
If I can get it £2.00sq m for commercial.
As much as I think I can get nowadays for suites because they are soul destroying.
John
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In the U S and Canada the norm' is to charge by the square foot whereas in the U K it tends to be by the square yard.
In domestics a lot od guestimations go on usually based on pricing by the room which is obviously madness.
The only safe and accurate way to price should be following a visual check and measure otherwise you're running blind and that can be disasterous.
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Don't understand the problem with cleaning suites, O K some can be a mess, but generally you have soiling on 50 % maybe 70% of the area and you can get a lot of referrals by returning suites to " new or nearly new " condition leaving customers amazed and delighted.
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Charge per sq ft ;D Minimum call out £65.
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i charge by the sq m. and also like mark have min of £65.
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Colin
I genraly try to work it out so that I charge at least £30 a hour
1st room takes a hour and a half with set up so at least £45
each other room, half an hour so 2 rooms equals £70 and so on
Neil
ps and lots for suites as I dont like doing them
If you ever want to swap suites for carpets ;) I did a 3 seater today for £80, would have been £100 but they are repeat custys. I love cleaning sofa's.... I am odd ;D
Cheers Neil, did you enjoy Flora Day?
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A sliding scale - so the larger the area in total the less per sq mtr it runs out too. Obviously I'd rather stay in one place and do more, even at a reduced rate, than pack up, drive on and start all over again (sounds like a song!)
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Colin
had a great flora day 8)
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Derek like to know more about your pricing as I like the way you do things differently, I charge £59 for a 12 x 12 and thereafter 12 x 12 become £49 well more or less as it's never that straight foward but how do you equalte your costings?
Shaun
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My average lounge price is £50
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Like Ian, I have a sliding scale.
If I just did a small bedroom carpet It'd work out up to an equivalent of about £6.50/m but on a huge all-day job it could well go down to £2.80/m or thereabouts.
The other way I've considered doing this is to have a set-up charge and then a flat rate per m, but I'm stuck in my ways and don't really want to change :)
P.S. looking at my stats, average equivalent would probably be around £3.60/m
All of my comments refer to domestic work only, commercial is a different kettle of frogs :D
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shaun
equations are.
i treat all carpets the same except dirty wool berbers which i add extra for.
room size i just look and adjust price.
furniture look and adjust price
dirty edges i'll add some more on. etc... etc....
i understand the pricing by square meter but surely you don't have one fixed price for carpet per meter sq.
it takes me 20 mins to clean an empty (lets say), 15 by 10 foot room
but if it was full of furniture tha needed moving, had really bad draft marks round the edges and it was a dirty wool berber, i would double (maybe more) my price. and yes i'd work twice as hard to get the same result as the easy one.
so personally i don't agree on fixed sq m pricing.
i suppose i guess how long its gonna take me and x it by 60, if i do it quicker, great, if it takes longer, its not such a bad deal.
scherrrwings and rind a bites i say. ;D
derek
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Jim
Have you got to follow a pricing structure being s m ???
My average is about 50 pounds plus :)
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Jim I trialled that a few years ago but people didn't like the sound of the 'set up cost' I thought that it would have made them buy more but most customers want a straight price with straight results.
Shaun
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Clinton - no, it's not compulsory, you can charge what you want.
Shaun - good point. I use my "sliding scale" to sell more to customers. By tastefully suggesting money savings rather than blatantly "dangling discounts" you get a better response in a lot of cases. Many customers I work for aren't the bargain hunter types, they are the types who like to know they're spending money with purpose. Big difference :)
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Derek are you basing it on an hourly rate then? ie straight clean with no furniture and little edge work say 30 mins work or the full furnitured dirty minger 1hr and tinmes that by your hourly rate.
Shaun
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yep
guess how long its gonna take me to do a fantastic job and x it by 60 quid per hour.
with a 50 quid minimum local and a 60 quid minimum slightly out of town ish type stuff.
seems to work, i get most of my jobs and i get paid well for the work i do.
suites are different though, but thats another ball park game type thingy ma jingy doodah watchamacallit.
derek
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Those who charge £1 a sqm could you tell us how you make money as thats really cheap regardless of what part of the country your it.
thanks
Mark
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Suites have always been a sticking point as most customers don't see any value in them, they don't really vac them only under the cushions.
Shaun
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Shaun/ Neil
Do you use the "unit" priceing as SM
i do and still find it works very well.
On the bad side is that on very large jobs, iv found, is that you can be TOO cheap but on small jobs you are expensive.
Daryl
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I charge by the SqM - 3 different rates (Light, Medium or Heavy soiling). Room for manouvre this way. I also do a sliding scale within the 3 bands for extra volume - based on "Volume Savings" (I NEVER use the word discount - it kind of devalues the service)
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When I used to work at Service Master they did charge by light Med and dirty sod cleaning and size it got a bit tedious but it was a fair way of doing things, I just do sq ft and am happy to do it that way as I get the money I want.
Shaun
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Those who charge £1 a sqm could you tell us how you make money as thats really cheap regardless of what part of the country your it.
thanks
Mark
Mark,
I was hoping that non of of us would question what others charge, just for once!
I am merely trying to see what the average is so I and the rest of us (certainly me) can perhaps have a better understanding of what prices we should/could be charging... Personally, I think I am exactly where I want to be..... for now. Once I have had a few years under my belt I can move on to charging over the £3 mark as I will be armed with even better equipment but more importantly, more knowledge, which in my opinion, warrants a higher price.
Those who are charging under the £1 just might realise their potential, but please lets not ask them to justify their honest input.
Regards, Colin....
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Supply and demand puts the prices up, if there is no demand over a sustained period of time then you will have to reduce prices so realistically get the phone ringing regularly and you can afford to turn down the cheap jobs and concentrate on better paying customers, it's easy getting the phone to ring isn't it? ;D I just get telesales to call me but it sounds good ;D ;D ;D
Shaun
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Im probably going to get slated for this but here goes.....
I don’t charge for sq m, sq f, per room .................................... i let the customer tell me what they want to pay rather than what i charge.....
When they call and ask me to quote them a clean i go to their property do my normal fibre, backing checks etc and then say ............ what price were you looking to pay or what budget do you have....ive only ever had one person try it on and say " oh 20 quid that’s when i say " well i can’t do it for that but i can do it for £££££ and it worked ..
If its a complete house clean i let them pay in 3 installments rather than all at once .............. and this has also given me lots more work
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It's an interesting and unique way of doing it, what if they (In your opinion) over estimate? I might start that approach with price shoppers as I never hook one anyway ;D What have I got to lose.....
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Do people really go and do backing checks and bleed tests on carpets every time they do a job??
Wool carpets for example.
9 times out of 10 one of the first things they say after finding out how much the job will cost is
" the living room's a wool carpet will that be a problem "
John
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Freemanscleaning.
You have a hypertext link to your website in your profile but it doesn't seem to work.
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well i have a good estimate in my head for what i would charge per room / per hour then if they over estimate themselves for example my price is £35 per room ( 12 ft x 12 ft ) and they say they want to spend no more than £60 then the good news is and i tell them that the price is going to be £50 ...wow that’s saved them money and ive made a little more and i am fully booked every day...........and it leads to more .......nursing home maintenance cleaning rooms and hallways.....managed flats communal cleaning....pubs offices ..... id rather have my equipment out cleaning for a fair price for my customers..they decide the price within reason and the word of mouth of how good you are as well is limitless
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Hi Mike ive just blocked that link as my website host has listed all my files on my ftp and not my actuall website im looking into now
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Yep i sure do......backing checks fibre and bleed test you never know......i dry cleaned to the best i could a carpet for a regular window cleaning customer of ours...................i cleaned all the stairs with prespray and sebo and the landing too ..ok wasn’t a great job but came up ok.....why did i do it this way.....because her neighbour has exactly the same carpet and a "technician" without much knowledge thought it was a looped berber....so he extracted.................ooops although it look like wool berber it was seagrass ...so it shrunk before their very eyes ......... check check check