[wayne zabel]

I'm pretty certain that this is beyond my capabilities at present but I just thought I'd ask..........

Had a call from the manager of the Varsity bar in Manchester city centre,I did a job for his mate a few weeks ago and he recommended me to this guy.

He wants an area of carpet cleaning that is basically minging,dirty, crusty topped,black in parts,full of beer stains ect ect.The area doubles as the dance floor at the weekends so you can imagine what its like.Been to have a look today and I dont think its within my current capabilities

I have Steempro Powermax with 135psi,is there any chance that using the right prespray that I could get this area anytrhing like clean?If its possible can you point me in the right directions about what solutions to use.

I'm thinking of telling the guy that its not for me but I just thought I'd run it by the forum.

Thanks

Wayne

[Peter Sweeney]

Wayne

Get yourself some tough hand brushes, a good, strong enzyme based pre-spray (traffic clean from prochem but make sure its hot when applied) and rinse with extraction pro (test first) and you will get a good result. Did the same type of job with exactly the same type of machine and got a £50 tip (cash) many years ago.

Ignore the the "you must have a TM" comments. It always is and always will be about the operative before the machine.

Pete

[Paul Simpson]

Don't think your extractor will be the issue, hot powerburst (with acidic rinse) should do the job depending on what form of agitation you have, ideally something heavy duty like a rotary with brush or host/envirodri with stiff brushes otherwise you'll have your work cut out.

[Paul Simpson]

Ah Pete beat me to it. 

[jacko]

I would use Enzall from Chemspec - hot - lots of agitation and 15 mins dwell time. Extract with acid rinse.  To boost the prespray hydramasters' Greasebreaker will help.
The key is the preparation I.E. choice of P/spray & agitation, not the extraction machine size.
Good Luck!

[Peter Sweeney]

Your too laid back Paul 

As said, any of the above. But its not the machine here, as Jacko says (as in most cases), it's in the prep. I don't even use my envirodri on these as its just better to get on your hands and knees with a good nylon brush (or get your labourer to).

Pete

[Paul Simpson]

Your too laid back Paul

So the Mrs keeps telling me but thats cause I've spent all weekend lying on the couch. 

[Andy Hogarth]

Did a similar one this very morning at a local pub

I used very hot powerburst and scrubbed in with my cleanfix floormac with 10-15 mins dwell, or untill the blacktop felt 'sticky', some areas were really bad and I had to get the hand brush out and srcub away. (labourer won't work sundays lol pete) Pubs are great because they have a ready supply of hot water which in my opinion is key to removing black top.

Rinsed with a strong f90 and gave an acid rinse groom while I put the fans on

Looked fantastic when I left

[ianharper]

Wayne

find yourself a carpet cleaner in your area with a TM and sub the work out this way you reduce your risk of any damage and make profit from just doing the quoting. make sure you get a contract signed by the carpet cleaner that has a loyalty paragraph in it.

Its no different from having staff working for you. When i had my maid service i did not get one cleaner rip me off.

BTW be at the venue when the clean is taking place you can give a hand and also you will learn a lot. don't forget follow up with the customer. BTW when your looking for a TM owner get a NCCA guy as he will have all the insurance in place.

Make sure you look and act the part with both the carpet cleaner and customer. and don't get friendly with both. familiarity breads contempt. be professional.

Respect

Ian Harper

[David Rogers]

I think he'd be missing out on valuable experience going down that route. And who wants to be a middle man?

Doesn't sound like anything he couldn't handle with his own machine.   I once cleaned a really dirty social club carpet in Newcastle using just a trust Extraca BX with a 50psi pump.   done a lovely job.   Needed to work hard with preparation, agitation, dry strokes etc but got it done.

I'd say go for the job - it'll be very rewarding (and tiring) when you're done!

[derek west]

Wayne

find yourself a carpet cleaner in your area with a TM and sub the work out this way you reduce your risk of any damage and make profit from just doing the quoting. make sure you get a contract signed by the carpet cleaner that has a loyalty paragraph in it.

Its no different from having staff working for you. When i had my maid service i did not get one cleaner rip me off.

BTW be at the venue when the clean is taking place you can give a hand and also you will learn a lot. don't forget follow up with the customer. BTW when your looking for a TM owner get a NCCA guy as he will have all the insurance in place.

Make sure you look and act the part with both the carpet cleaner and customer. and don't get friendly with both. familiarity breads contempt. be professional.

Respect

Ian Harper

well thats me out, i obviously haven't got insurance.

[Gerry Styles]

I found that ultrapac retnovate works well on blacktop. dwell time agitate and extract with F&f rinse

[clinton]

That counts me out as well,am just a poor strugling portie owner 

[colin thomas]

regarding the truck-mount issue, you may well get a good result with a porty after hours of scrubbing and numerous rinse passes but the point is that with a tm it would be cleaned in a fraction of the time. the customer might want the carpet cleaned and dry in a short time which might be beyong waynes capabilities,

colin

[richie]

Right here goes and i will be very honest and very open with my answer.

A truckmount will cope with this type of work with very little effort compared to yours and ANY electric machine.  Yes you can and will be able to do this type of work with your machine it just means extra effort and time.  As many on this board know i used to clean in this type of situation 5 days a week.

Make sure you use a QUALITY pre-spray,  the best thing to use on this type of soiling is Prochem PowerBurst, simply follow the directions on the tub and you wont have a problem.  Aggitation would make things much easier for you, a rtary with a brush attachment, or any other type of aggitation is fine.  If you only have a grooming brush then thats ok but more labour required.  Allow 10 - 15 minutes dwell time.  Fill your machine with the hotest water possible and add acidic rinse to it then simply extract.  Remember you may well need to do extra cleaning passes so ensure you do extra dry strokes.

Richie.

[wayne zabel]

Thanks for all the advice,I have decided against doing this job at the moment,as most know I'm still part time - thats until 6th august,give notice in a work yesterday and taking the plunge and going full time - so i wont have the time to do it in the time frame required.Hopefully I will get lots of opportuniies to do some of this sort of work over the next few years.


Thanks again

Wayne

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Congratulations Wayne and good luck in your new business.

Don't forget, start as you mean to go on price-wise and go on as many training courses as you can afford.

[wayne zabel]

Thanks for that,very scary time for me but I really enjoy carpet cleaning and have had enough of working in a Printing factory after 35 years in that game.

[ianharper]

guys

you have to think out of the box. just look at the guys that did that ship a few months ago. your not on your own any more. and who want to be the middle man? well i know what the middle man got on that job and he did OK and it was worth the effort and time.

don't forget that contact cleaning companies clean massive areas of carpet in our city's and its all with untrained people on the end on a porty.

the formate that worked on that ship job will work for any one of us. the hard part is getting the contacts in the first place. but if a massive job lands on your lap don't just turn it down remember we are all here.

Respect

Ian Harper

[clinton]

Good luck wayne mate..

You will get  a feel for the jobs that you can do yourslef wayne and some you caint or dont feel confident to do,and time will get you this confidence after a while..