[Mark Hubbard]

Hi All,

I am a new poster to this forum.
I am in the process of setting up my own carpet cleaning business and I would be grateful to hear views of established cleaners.
The biggest question I have to answer is hot water extraction or dry carpet cleaning.  I have been on a hot water extraction carpet cleaning course.  I walked away feeling slightly nervous with the fear of shrinkage and the drying period. 

After much research, I am warming to the idea of dry carpet cleaning.  I have researched three systems.
1. Dry fusion. 2. Envirodri. 3. Host.  Dry Fusion is looking unlikely due to the starter package cost and I feel all the equipment wouldn't fit in my car (unable to afford a van at this moment).  This leaves Envirodri or Host.

I would be very grateful if anyone could give me there experiences on the above two systems, and confirm if I'm doing right by going with dry cleaning.

Thank you for reading.

kind regards, Mark Hubbard.


 

[davep]

You will get a better clean and sons better chance of repeat and referals with hwe

[Colin Day]

HWE is much more universal and gives a deeper clean. I offer dry carpet cleaning and bonnet cleaning to my customers and explain the process of each one. 99.99% opt for HWE....

[AshWhite]

HWE is much more universal and gives a deeper clean. I offer dry carpet cleaning and bonnet cleaning to my customers and explain the process of each one. 99.99% opt for HWE....

If you ask people to choose between red or blue, exactly 0% will choose yellow.

Plenty of people make a living from dry cleaning only.

However, back to your post - if you can't afford a van, do you have funds for advertising? A fund to keep you going while you get up and running? These things will burn through cash faster than Derek in a McDonalds at breakfast time. Don't underestimate how much you need as a slush fund!

[creighton foyle]

dry fusion is much better than host or envirodri, a lot cheaper than the host too.

[craignozza]

When i first started i got scare mongered about shrinkage but a year on and im still 6ft   

[Hilton]

Probably want to.go down HWE route, nothing wrong with LM ( not dry) but as a grounding in the business probably best place to start..

Why not look at leasing equipment to ease cash flow, you can keep some cash back then for working capital, as mentioned you will need this for 3 -6 months.

You really need a van or at the very least an estate , good luck its a tough time to start and I would recommend starting part-time if you're able, so you can get some training before taking the plunge full time..

[Colin Day]

HWE is much more universal and gives a deeper clean. I offer dry carpet cleaning and bonnet cleaning to my customers and explain the process of each one. 99.99% opt for HWE....

If you ask people to choose between red or blue, exactly 0% will choose yellow.

Plenty of people make a living from dry cleaning only.

However, back to your post - if you can't afford a van, do you have funds for advertising? A fund to keep you going while you get up and running? These things will burn through cash faster than Derek in a McDonalds at breakfast time. Don't underestimate how much you need as a slush fund!

I'd much rather they all chose bonneting to be honest or even better/quicker, shake and vac method... A lot quicker....

So don't believe for second I don't try to push the alternative methods, Ash

[AshWhite]

Sorry Colin, I didn't mean that - what I mean is that if you only have one method, then the 'decision' conversation doesn't take place. I think its fair to say that most customers are looking for a carpet cleaner, not specifically a carpet hot water extractor.

[Colin Day]

Aaaahhh. Got ya....

[Colin Day]

I suppose you could do the dry cleaning method and market it by putting doubt in people's minds about having their carpets wet cleaned.... You wouldn't be the first one

[davep]

But the carpets wouldn't be clean 

[wynne jones]

If you don't know what you are doing, don't have any money and not good at selling I'd definitely go for dry carpet cleaning.

[Carpet Dawg]

make a sacrifice, sell your car and buy a van with the funds. If you have any left over buy signage, a website and business cards.

[Ian Gourlay]

Probably want to.go down HWE route, nothing wrong with LM ( not dry) but as a grounding in the business probably best place to start..

Why not look at leasing equipment to ease cash flow, you can keep some cash back then for working capital, as mentioned you will need this for 3 -6 months.

You really need a van or at the very least an estate , good luck its a tough time to start and I would recommend starting part-time if you're able, so you can get some training before taking the plunge full time..

Leasing is an option but over the years I have watched people come and go.
Encouraged by the hype on the Forum some have even leased Truckmounts  worked very hard at leafleting and other marketing only to find it has not produced the instant results

They have crashed and burned but still responsible for the debt
So do be careful

[Carpet Dawg]

Leasing a porty?  you can pick a decent one off ebay or here for a grand.

Get a relative to bank roll you or sell some of your assets on ebay or car boot sale.

[wynne jones]

Don't by an expensive system get a low speed rotary and some bonnets. Not quite as effective but then that's not the idea. With this approach you can start cheap and work out the back of an estate car.

This is the cheapest and least risky start for anyone new.

Yes I too have been brainwashed.

[Jamie Pearson]

I have several customers who exclusively use dry compound systems.

They all have a small spotting machine or entry level extractor to compliment this as they need it for upholstery cleaning, the odd spot or for areas that just dont respond well to compound i.e. stairs.

They also spend a lot of time working in presprays which is essential the same as LM/Encap cleaning or HWE for that matter, only using sponges to pull it back out again.

It is a more expensive system in use than HWE but that doesnt mean that money cant be made if you have the right market and the ability to sell to that market.

From memory when I last worked it out it was clocking in around £1/m2 of materials on a heavy soiled carpet. (that was several years ago) HWE is more like 10p max.

Most here would see it as an add on system which to be fair is probably the best way about getting into it.

As Tony suggests get a decent used extractor to start things off, learn the way 95% of the others out there work, then you can decide if its a route you want to go down to separate you out from the others. As I said you need the right kind of work for it to really work. i.e. large areas of good quality carpet, cleaned frequently.

It was after all essentially a carpet maintenance system when first launched.

[Steve Rothwell]

Don't by an expensive system get a low speed rotary and some bonnets. Not quite as effective but then that's not the idea. With this approach you can start cheap and work out the back of an estate car.

This is the cheapest and least risky start for anyone new.

Yes I too have been brainwashed.

Welcome to the dry side Wynne

 

[Steve Rothwell]

I suppose you could do the dry cleaning method and market it by putting doubt in people's minds about having their carpets wet cleaned.... You wouldn't be the first one

That is what I do