Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: kinder clean on June 07, 2009, 03:35:48 pm
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Yes I know its a 'How long is a piece of string' question, but based on your average job of 1 - 2 carpets being cleaned per house.
Also what time do you deem acceptable to turn up for your first job ?
If I turn up at 8am, I average 2 1/2 hours for an average 2 room clean, which is from knocking on the door to getting back in the van.
Allowing up to 30 mins driving between jobs the best I can do is 3 jobs per day myself ( If I'm lucky enough to be booked for the whole day )
Just wondered if other porty users do more ? Am I too slow !!! ???
Obviously this is the advantage of having a truck mount. ( The only advantage because my porty is just as good at..........blah blah blah ;D )
Paul
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My best was 3 empty whole house carpet cleaning 2 x 2 bed and 1 x 3 bed and that was without rushing the jobs.... I neded a few pints when I'd clocked off at 5:30.... :)
That was with the Exel and Scrubba......
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Average time for 2 room clean for me from arrive to depart is 2 hours max.
If empty 1.5 hours max.
I don't start before 9.15 as generally find that people who want them done on a morning want to get the kids to school first.
I also miss the school rush hour as it is murder round here from 8.30 to 9.
Did an empty bungalow on Friday, 2 beds 1 large, large lounge, hallway and a conservatory of average room size in 2 hours 10 mins arrive to depart.
I would rather have a lie in and work till 7.30ish than the other way.
John
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2 rooms with a tm (for comparison) would take about 1hr 15 from arriving to leaving. ;)
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When I had a porti I'd say that 2-2.5 hours was about right for me, there's so much to consider though, slow running tap heavily soiled rooms, with a TM you can clean more or less just as fast irrilivant of the soiling, st up is usually quicker but you have water to hand but you do get those days when you have to ask people to move their cars or you can't get on the drive and are double parked on the road, horses for courses, but to answer your question a cleaner doing a good job on 2 carpets is around 2 hours ish and then set up set down.
Shaun
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For me I would say 3 jobs a day starting at 9.00 and finishing at about 5 with a half hour break
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Most I've done in a day is 4 seperate jobs, 1 was a single room, another lounge with HSL, the others were 3 or more rooms (1 an empty flat).
Wasn't through choice, had 2 booked in and 2 more ringing me on the day with the "any chance you can come today" plea, otherwse they would have tried elsewhere.
Was a long day and tiredness crept in which mean't I took shortcuts. Will usually try to keep it 2-3 per day (depending on size) so I don't compromise standards.
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Usually between 4 and 5 a day. Week in week out.
Having said that there are a couple of things in my favour. Firstly, I only spend about 15 minutes a day on marketing at most. Secondly most of my clients are repeats so you know how you are going to tackle the job before you get there and because in many cases they are regular cleans the level of dirt isn't too bad to start with. Finally travel time between jobs averages no more than 10 minutes.
It has been known to do upto 9 jobs in a day. Usually this is during December when they are long, long working days (if short, short daylight hours 8)) and if you can find an assistant to load and unload the van whilst doing the chatting up of the client, and to fill and empty the machine then productivity would I am sure go up for many.
The only problem is finding that number of jobs........ ;)
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even with a truckmount i'd find it bloody hard to do 9 jobs in a day
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The most ive done in a day with a prochem powermax was 5 pubs about 2 years ago.. 42 pubs in about 14 days. hard work but well worth it.
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9 jobs a day sounds like a real classy outfit
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I've done 9 in one day, 2 of us cleaning, it was Xmas and I was being greedy but the thing is we all expect January to be quiet but it never really is anymore.
If you can clean 3 carpets at 3 houses why not? with 2 people shouldn't be a problem, late for tea! or just intime for supper but why not?
Shaun
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Prob about 3 or 4 a day and usually fin in the early afternoon myself,must say roger said it all when he said its mostly repeat and regular work so we know the level of soiling to expect.
I dont travel miles and miles either so i keep the driving time down to my limit.
I too dont spend too much time on marketing as thankfully have a good client base,but i did years ago when i started and used to quote most jobs ::)
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skywalker
can i come out with u for a few jobs, i am in south shields
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A TM is only quicker on a big job. Set up times on a tm are drawn out as there are many more cosiderations but thats justs me, I do a hell of a alot of prep work. (and before you ask, yes I use both)
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I've done 7 jobs in a day with a TM and earned a small fortune doing it but wouldn't do it on a regualr basis as it's a one way ticket to the graveyard. Wouldn't even consider it possible to do the same amount of work in a day with a portable.
Sy
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Around September I do a lot of rental work where you can clean in 10+ different houses in the one street. Anything from one room to 5 rooms. Long hard days but relatively easy as theres little setup/down and driving. Although 1-2 weeks of this is enough.
So moving this on a stage imagine if you could get a few neighbours to organise themselves to get their houses done on the same day. Saves a lot of driving time and setting up time. Offer a discount of course.
Anyone tried it.
MArk
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Like Roger I used to average around 7 jobs per day including suites..............highest productivety was the CFR which I loved to use................
Now 65 and in pretty poor physical condition ( nothing to do with c/c ) I can still manage three, or four jobs in a day. Not the big ones.
For example....................on Friday I cleaned a fabric suite, leather suite, fully carpeted two bed flat. Not sure I could handle that too often nowadays but was pretty easy even 10 years ago.
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sorry if i am not getting this
do you mean 9 carpets in a day or nine jobs ,at seperate locations, using a porty ina day?
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Most ive done in a day is 5 with a porty and that was enough.
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Too many factors to take into account ! Today i did a very clean 2 bed flat £168 took me 1 hour (was there yeaterday too,pre sprayed then got call saying tenant had had them done,i said they were trying to pull a fast 1,agy came and looked ,and told me to hold off cleaning until they hear back from tenant,they tried to pull a fast 1 with a photocopy of an invoice >:( ) got the go ahead this morn.
2nd job today large 4 bed 3 storey 15 months old £240 should have been nigh on £370,but it was clean so stairs free and knocked £40 as they were clean ,carpets were good as new but as they had been in there 15 months had to be cleaned.2 !/2 hrs.
Can do 2 or 3 in a day ,but depends how big and how dirty and how far away they are
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Me too 5 in a day and it was enough.
Depends on the amount of work your doing I suppose.
Of the 5 one was a 3 piece and lounge and one a 3 piece, lounge and dining room.
Did the other 3 single rooms all in a morning.
Never again will I book two 3 pieces in a day, don't like doing them anyway.
Could probably squeeze in 7 maybe 8 single roomers in a day but that would
mean working into the evening which I did a lot of last year.
Would book no more than 2 evenings a week up last year from April to October.
John
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I remember the first year I started, it was the week before Christmas and I did 5 x 3 peice suites in a day, all in different locations, finished at around 7pm with my right arm hanging off! Charged £10/seating then!
I still do work for four of them on a regular basis.
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Exactly the same as you Ian. Five suites in one day the week before Christmas. And it wasn't even as if we'd been doing nothing in the previous days.
The thought of that happening the following December really really depressed me thinking about it during the following November.
Luckily it was never that bad again, but at least I have better machines, more skill these days....and I would be paid considerably more. :)
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Normally.. Two out of five days I'm on a big job all or most of the day. Another two out of five days I'll do two jobs. The other odd day is scraps and farts like spot cleans and one-roomers, a few hours marketing/admin and going out to quote.
I'd consider 3 or 4 cleaning jobs in a day to be extremely busy, let alone some of these 5-10 appointments! How much work are you guys doing at a time going to that many customers a day ???
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Yeah i couldn`t do that many in a day,would be worn out and start to cut corners,would rather do 2 or 3 in a day over 5 days,the way it works out though i usually end up doing 3 a day for 2 or 3 days then rest of the week off ;D
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When doing high volume work it was at lower prices and of course it was to a lower standard than today. No vaccing just a brush down and straight onto spray / extract.
When we did 11 jobs in a day we were out till 9.30pm but that was at a time when we were accumulating cash and future clients.
Ironically, we worked a lot harder on those jobs than we do now but our reults got us repeat work and recommends in abundance.
We had a variety of small to medium portables and it was only when we got our first CFR life got easier.
I get the impression that at 65 and knackered body I could outperform a fair number of young bucks on here.
Not a challenge, just an observation.
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Did a 3 bed today,pale berber not too dirty,got £130 cash ;D could have done it in 1.5 hrs but dragged my feet so it didn`t make me look bad
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I'd consider 3 or 4 cleaning jobs in a day to be extremely busy, let alone some of these 5-10 appointments! How much work are you guys doing at a time going to that many customers a day ???
Jim
A mix is the answer. Most jobs would be for example, a suite and lounge carpet, or hsl, or through lounge or a stain. Stain jobs say 20 minutes on the job average. the rugs were cleaned previously in my cellars
THe other day was a admittedly a busy day but included:
leather suite and carpet
return rugs
small through lounge,
empty bed in EOT
vomit stain
hsl
wine stain
4 beds & stairs in house a family are about to move into
Clinton would confirm that that's the sort of level of work I do day in day out although usually only about 4-5 jobs a day.
Total mileage for the day-just over 30 miles. Source of work was as follows
recommendation by daughter now wanting 3 monthly visits
repeat client approx every 24 months
repeat every 6 months
regular property management company
repeat
new client 300 yards away who saw the van and also was recommended
new client 300 yards away in opposite direction who saw the van & waited 10 days from my return from holiday
repeat
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Maybe 8 or 9 years ago I would often do 7or 8 jobs a day but that was when my prices where lower and before laminates became really popular, even did 5 suites in a day along with carpets aswell a few times not recommended though for health reasons.
Nowadays I am quite happy with 3 or 4 jobs a day at a higher price start about 9 and finish about 4 that does me and using the truckmount now makes the day a bit more relaxing aswell :)
Regards Andy Locke.
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Jim when you say you get approx 2 days a week on big jobs are they insurance jobs or are they full houses etc?
Roger how do you get them on 6 monthly or even 3 monthly cleans?
Shaun
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Shaun
Very simple really and it's what I've been banging on about on this forum for quite a while.
Usually the conversation goes along the lines of:
Client: how often should I have me carpets cleaned?
Me: Every week......but that's the facetious answer
Me: there's no right or wrong answer it depends upon level of wear/children/pets/smokers/traffic outside/aircraft/etc,ec.
However just like dentists recommending changing your toothbrush every three months so you should clean your carpets before they ACTUALLY look dirty.
How often (Mrs client) were you thinking?
Client: Well I certainly qualify or many of those items you mentioned. What about every 3 months?
Me: You could be right. Lets do that but if we think that's too often we can drop it back down to every 6 months.
If you are happy with this I'll phone you again in x months, we can get our diaries out and arrange the next clean. I have many clients who like me to do this and it stops you having to worry about remembering when the next clean is due.
As you can see this is a subtle way of "diplomacy: the art of letting other people have your way". It uses humour to take the tension out of the conversation plus also getting them to volunteer what is on their mind and finally allowing you to demonstrate that you are not pushing for frequent cleans whilst demonstrating that I have taken it as perfectly normal that I will be ringing them in a few months time not only just for a chat but also with the specific intention of booking them in for another clean.
Simple really. :)
All you've got to do is have the confidence to do it. ;D ;D
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Diplomacy is being married and after that it should be dead easy merging it to customers, you have to be orderly and definately not lazy.
Shaun
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Shaun - I don't do insurance work. An all-dayer to me is a full big house of carpets or a suite + carpets, a decent sized hard floor job or a mixture of carpets, suite & curtains. It's nice when I can add on protector to an awkward job that's 2/3 of a day because it makes up the money and I can go home a bit earlier for the same money :)
Roger - working down your list....
leather suite and carpet
return rugs
small through lounge,
empty bed in EOT
vomit stain
hsl
wine stain
4 beds & stairs in house a family are about to move into
... I'd be home after the empty bed EOT job probably having earned a decent day's money! (why the hell would you clean just a bedroom in an eot???)
The rest of the list would probably be another day's work.
20 mins on a stain job? From arrive to depart? I've probably just about got my kit off the van and filled a bucket by then!!