[Marti]

That's the reply I recently got 2 x months ago from Brian at Extracta when I was enquiring about chemicals and cleaning methods.

Previous to this comment & to the information I received, I stocked a huge range of chemicals on board my van, you name it I had it all, but this cost a lot of money and was eating away at my profits.

Now I only carry:-

Detergent
Pre-spray de-greaser
de-foam
master stain remover
solvent (now only white spirit)
deodoriser

I also have ditched the sebo duo agitator for a manual brush which I have found a lot better at agitating the pre-spray in & quicker plus I don't have to sit there cleaning the brushes everytime   :

As well as all that, I've changed the way I clean carpets. Everything now goes in the tank, I use my hand tool to pre-spray the carpet direct from my machines tank, agitate with my manual brush, leave for 15 mins, then extract using 400psi at 70 degrees, groom pile and using this method I've noticed a massive difference in the quality of my work. The other plus side is that it much much quicker than my old method. Note: no expensive rinsing.

What am I trying to say?

To any newbie reading all these posts on here, forget about ph, forget about all the technical jargon, rinsing, doing courses, etc, you just don't need it because it's only carpet cleaning.

Using M Power to clean this and Nemisus to clean that, using power burst, double clean, its all a load of nonsense, just obtain a really good detergent like Ultimate master, that's all you need.

I wonder how many people that don't post on here but read this are now sitting at home nodding their heads    

And the prices that some of you dreamers are reported to be charging.

Get your feet back down to earth & have a reality check - we are only carpet cleaners!

[jasonl]

Agreed , though to keep a family , and to have a sustainable  business , you would need 6-900/ week turnover = £50 plus/ hour whilst cleaning.

[Pristine Clean]

Wow!

Not sure if that is actual common sense and truthful. Or edging on the edge of dangerous. What about all the gimmiks, the marketing hype....

Oh and the big earners wont like what you said there.... I am alright as I am not a huge earner compared to some of the posters on here.

I will say this, it nice to see someone with some balls for a change.

Ill add here what about a porty and a TM then, whats your opinion here..?

Best of luck


Dave

[Neil Williams]

First post and basically advertising
Do I smell a rat or will ultimate master cure it

[Matt Lindus]

I too agree. Most on here have a BA Hons in talking Bull S**t. The real fact is they all live in teniments [two up two down], have dangerous dogs and wear tracksuits tucked into their trainers.

Thats me for tonight.

Matt

[Marti]

Ill add here what about a porty and a TM then, whats your opinion here..?

Best of luck


Dave

My opinion is this:-

TM's are ok for commercial jobs with easy access but how many of them does one actually get in a week/month??

I know a guy who just sold his TM to get a Porty, why? because he was fed up in passing on work to a porty operator ie flats, 7 floors up, city jobs where parking is difficult etc.

Lets be honest, do you really want a noisy van going outside your house for hours on end disturbing the neighbours, with hoses sprawled across the garden, front door wide open, I know I wouldn't.

Why spend £1,000's on a bit of kit you can't use 80% of the time, when you can use a decent porty and do the same job for a fraction of the cost.

And no I'm NOT advertising anything but that's the detergent I use.

[jasonl]

I too agree. Most on here have a BA Hons in talking Bull S**t. The real fact is they all live in teniments [two up two down], have dangerous dogs and wear tracksuits tucked into their trainers.

Thats me for tonight.

Matt

Most people from here whose house I have visited are in the 300k plus bracket with flash cars too.

[wynne jones]

Mr M. Power LOL

Either he has a Beemer or a sense of humour. 

I rarely get a job I can't do with a truck. If I do I am very happy to let someone woth a porty who needs the work do it.

[Colin Day]

I agree Mr Power, with everything you say...

Love the name BTW, very amusing thread too

[Matt Lindus]

I too agree. Most on here have a BA Hons in talking Bull S**t. The real fact is they all live in teniments [two up two down], have dangerous dogs and wear tracksuits tucked into their trainers.

Thats me for tonight.

Matt

Most people from here whose house I have visited are in the 300k plus bracket with flash cars too.

Come off it. An NCCA training course looks like a shelter for the homeless, minus the soup and the rolls.
  

[Sam Davies]

I only use power burst double clean and fibre and fabric rinse,I think ultimate master is only good for curtains.I use 100 psi blah blah degrees and a manual brush to aggitate.Horses for courses mate.And I live in a3 bed semi.
But I know what you mean arry.

[cleanability]

Well knock me down with a feather cor blimey................ at last!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lolllllllllllll Some sense. Most of the clowns on here think its brain surgery or splitting the atom. Ive wasted hundreds of pounds with advice I foolishly took after going on here. Like Ive said before ITS CARPET CLEANING not nuclear fission. Its one of the most unskilled jobs going that pays well   lolllllllllll


Chris

[Dave Roberts]

It's not even as hard as you're making it sound Martin Power ........ if you use a rotary!

 

[Sam Davies]

Martin stop getting scientific

[Peter_Jones]

The OP is talking absolute sense. For over 5 years I have used Power Burst or Double Clean on absolutely every domestic carpet, usually sprayed on, agitated with a brush and then clean water extracted. Some carpets have been harder to clean than others but I have managed to pull through on every job. I have a paint/oil/grease but little else.

I've never done a fibre test and wouldn't know how to. I've never done a colour test either. Just keep it simple, don't over-wet the carpet and give it a thorough extraction. A great deal of my customers are repeat business, I get to see the same carpets over and again, they haven't shrunk, faded, rotted away or become a pile of radioactive ash with my methods. When you listen to some of the posters on here you'd think that you could damage a carpet simply by walking into a customer's house wearing the wrong aftershave.

It really is a load of ****

[robert meldrum]

Fascinating .......................Now will the REAL ( M POWER ) stand up !

[Colin Day]

I can perform just about any DIY task, fix just about any household appliance, paint and decorate and also achieve a bit of car mechanics.......

BUT, I wouldn't go around posing as a joiner, household appliance technician, painter and decorator or car mechanic because I am not insured to do so and not qualified.

99.99% of all people can use a RD to soak their carpets, but the clever ones get us guys in to do a "professional" job.

I imagine that a few posters on here are NOT insured, to match their wishy washy attitude they are projecting to our livelyhoods. You are a ticking time bomb and I doubt very much you'd ever have the decency to admit any big mistakes you've ever made.

[JandS]

He has a few good points.
I started out buying different chemicals for this and that.
Then I realised that Powerburst for pre spray and Double
Clean or F and F for rinse will do.
Upholstery I just use Craftex upholstery pre spray, agitate
and a hot fresh water rinse, maybe a drop of DC in the tank
if it's a minger.
Never actually bothered doing a flame test or a colour test
even though I was shown how to.
I've never shrunk a carpet and the only ones I have turned
down have been because they were so badly trashed they
weren't worth it.
Same with upholstery.
As for prices some on here do say they charge high, whether
they actually do or not I don't know but good luck to them.

John

[Peter_Jones]

I can perform just about any DIY task, fix just about any household appliance, paint and decorate and also achieve a bit of car mechanics.......

BUT, I wouldn't go around posing as a joiner, household appliance technician, painter and decorator or car mechanic because I am not insured to do so and not qualified.

99.99% of all people can use a RD to soak their carpets, but the clever ones get us guys in to do a "professional" job.

I imagine that a few posters on here are NOT insured, to match their wishy washy attitude they are projecting to our livelyhoods. You are a ticking time bomb and I doubt very much you'd ever have the decency to admit any big mistakes you've ever made.

There's nothing "professional" about cleaning carpets. It's not a profession, it's barely even a trade and it's certainly not a skill.

I assume you can wire a plug up just as well as an electrician and I am sure you can put up a shelf with the same competency as a joiner, even if you aren't qualified to do it.

I am not exactly sure when this "ticking time bomb" that you talk about is going to go off but it seems that it's been ticking for a lot of years.

There's nothing skilled about cleaning carpets, it can be learned in a day.

[Dave Roberts]

There's nothing skilled about cleaning carpets, it can be learned in a day.

It IS learned in a day on the Extracta Training Course I went on!  I'm not dissing it, it was a good introduction, with a good bloke of a tutor (Paul, from A1 Valet in Teeside) with a cracking sense of humour.  But there is more to learn that what was trained on the 1 day course.   Cleaning a carpet; sure you could learn in a day but spot treatment needs a little more.  That's what I've found any way.  Any 'expertise' or 'professionalism' comes into play in the minority of jobs but it still comes into play.

If it is that easy and non-professional though, why did I earn an ADVANCED certificate in carpet & upholstery cleaning on the 1 day course at Extracta?

It's no good alluding to professionalism when it suits, and a unskilled job when it doesn't.