[Ricky M]

Had call from America today to offer me a fantastic future investment in the world of ceiling cleaning After lots of "hay" , "we are big" and "have a nice day" the price came out with the patter of we fly you to Minsota for 4 days training then you pay us £35K for a dealer ship, pumps, chems etc at this point I PMSL , he then went on to mention that they would have a stand at N.E.C in march and we could catch up over coffee !!
Grant Hall - Ceiling Pro London.
Not going to slag it just yet but the £35K seems a bit steep !?

[Mike Osbourne]

I think it was the next big thing five years ago. Sure somebody is doing it and making money, but that don't mean there's a high demand.

[derek west]

Ceiling cleaning?
cleaning ceilings?
the cleaning?
of the ceiling?

you mean painter and decorater right?

derek

[Mike Osbourne]

The Premier package comes with bucket, cloth, sugar soap and information kit, including insider tips like buy stilts from your local circus supplies if you are a bit of a short arse.

[garry22]

We used to do this about ten years ago.

You can make the machine for about two hundred quid.

A really good chemical is One Step Ceiling and Wall Cleaner (used to be about £60.00 for 10L of concentrate, which goes a very long way). It can be used on metal tray ceilings as well as mineral tiles. If hovever, the tiles have been painted ,the system does not work.

On a nicotine covered ceiling the results can be spectacular.

The marketing side is up to you. Since the smoking ban the demand has dropped although fast food outlets will still need it. Our last few jobs were for shopfitting / maintenance companies. These were part of their nationwide refurbishment contracts. We stopped doing it because they often wanted to pay less than it cost us to do the work!

£35,000? Can they guarantee you the work?

Garry

[garry22]

Mike,

The first time I heard about stilts, I thought it was a wind up.

I couldn't believe it when I saw a photo of guys using them whilst working on a ceiling. Was the system called a "Guppy" or something like that? I may still have the brochure. If I find it I'll post the picture.

It was a system similar to the hard surface / wall  tool (fully enclosed) on the CFR system.

Garry

[derek west]

plasterers use stilts all the time, well not all the time. they take them off for driving
derek

[mark_roberts]

He must be working his way around the country.  He called me during last summer.  Then got a call from a local business who bought the master franchise.

Question is who would want their ceiling cleaned as no one smokes inside now for years.

£35k would get you a van and very good T/mount which could earn you over £100k a year so could you do that with ceiling cleaning.  I think not.

Mark

PS. this guy (if its the same one) would make a great telesales person for carpet cleaning but then i suppose thats why hes doing what hes doing now.

[Ricky M]

Derek , 

Mike , 

He sent me a real fancy e-mail

cant wait to part with the money...................... NOT !!

Ricky

[John Kelly]

Total waste of time, even more so now that smoking has been banned in the workplace.
Extracta have been selling this gear for over 30 years.

[Fintan_Coll]

No, cannot see much demand for it now since the smoking ban came into force.
I only ever cleaned perhaps three or four even before the ban. I used Extractas products and yes good results, but to invest 35K , no way.

[Mike Roper]

Against my advice my cousin and husband went to US a couple of years ago thinking this would be a good addition to their cleaning business.Only went for a look, but fell for it a signed up . When the chems came alot of it was unusable in this country due to health and safety concerns.Whever this has changed I cant say.The  stuffs still in their unit.
Watched with interest in cleaning and maintenance mag etc as  someone in London now pushing it.
As John says this is nothing new and hasnt taken off. My thoughts are - last thing on peoples mind ,its bad enough getting people to get  carpets cleaned what they can see. Out of hours work most of time. Chasing around the country getting and doing the jobs.
Mike