[Chris Straker]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and if you are happy to run your wand over the last minute rug for an added tenner, then good for you ........... I, on the other hand, am more than happy to take the rug away with me, give it the specialist care it needs and return it for the extra job ticket. ........( £164 in yesterdays case )  
There is something that is almost as bad as ruining a rug and that is charging someone for cleaning it, only to underdo it in case it causes a problem !! If a pair of matching rugs were given to two cleaners for the same price, the one that is done by the knowledgeable person , will be a better value job ......simply due to the other one not being cleaned to its maximum potential for fear of damaging............ I used to do exactly that, hand tool everything and keep it as dry as possible  :

MRC has earned me a nice few bob with rug work, plus the additional carpet & upholstery cleans those customers have had and not even starting on the repairs I am now able to make for restorations ......... I think that velcro is the only rip off that I have been near lately  

[Nigel_W]

£1000 is not alot for specialist rug training. If you tap in to the right market you can recover that in the cleaning of one rug.

A lot of the rug knowledge is also very useful information to improve your carpet cleaning skills as well.

Cleaning valuable rugs without the right knowledge is a highly risky business. As you have proved you can get away with it but then one day your luck will run out.


Nigel

[colin fitch]

How to make money from rug cleaning ? ( Start by Investing some time and money on training)

as time goes by you will reconize the rugs that are going to give you trouble.

Once the client is confident and reconizes you speak with aurthority and knowledge about there rugs, they are more than happy for you to clean there rugs(at a higher price of course).

colin

[Chris Straker]

Colin, sssssshhhhhhhh ......... not so specialised if everyone starts doing it  :

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Cost of the cleaning aside has anyone ever worked out how much it is to clean a rug? ie shampoo, heating, rent of unit.

Shaun

[Chris Straker]

Not got a specific rug cleaning plant but loading space within my shared unit !!

[Nigel_W]

Who woke Colin up

[Chris Straker]

As Colin suggests, training & qualification came before I started charging more .......... odd that I would quote hair product advert but " it's because I'm worth it"   :

[Barry Livingstone]

Cost of the cleaning aside has anyone ever worked out how much it is to clean a rug? ie shampoo, heating, rent of unit.

Shaun

ALright Shaun Mines cost about £275pm but I really need more space. SO the First 2 rugs cover the cost of it PM

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I send my rugs away to be cleaned they cost on average £25 I 'handled' over 100 last year, it makes a nice profit but the add ons with further work is what I'm after.

Shaun

[Carpet Dawg]

I dont "run over rugs for an extra tenner" I also take them away, and  clean them in my garden (I have a large area of decking) and I dry them in one of my spare rooms.

If its a small cheap rug, then yes I will clean on site. Sometimes for free (shock horror!!!) if its part of a bigger job.

13 years and alot of rugs later, never damaged one, call it luck or maybe the suppliars / trainers / course organizers slightly exaggerating?? Also a possiblety no?

[Chris Straker]

It is a possibility but the rugs I have had sent to me for correction, prove otherwise !! I have taken delivery of 11 rugs in two years, that were incorrectly cleaned or the wrong products used ....... their luck ran out , as the customer claimed my charge back from previous cleaners or their insurance companies !!

I must admit that, in the good weather, I also use my 'custom built vented rug cleaning platform' (30 sq m decking area) ...... great surface for the purpose 

[Carpet Dawg]

Did the master rug cleaning course put you on a database or some how put you intouch with clients? or is the work mainly from your own maketing efforts?

Did the course also have a marketing lesson?

[Len Gribble]

Chris

Hope you laid them on some type of tarpaulin and you dried the upside down

Colin

How the back  

[Paul Moss]

I have to smile  reading this as rug courses only started over the past 2 years or so in this country. Dave Leahona has been doing training with me on rugs for about 7 years to many guys.

 The NCCA a never did anything with rug training until recently nor did Paul P, Derek B, or Ken W! But now they do and are all  experts.

Alot of people have been cleaning and repairing high value and risky rugs for many years with no problems   

[colin fitch]

Talking off training.

Next year Ruth Travis(Rug Lady) will be in the u.k. for a 3 day rug course at The Big Clean.

Len

Back is much better thanks.

Colin.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Paul you are correct but I'd suspect that dave l.  got the wheels in motion and others jumped on the band waggon albeit I think Paul Pearce had a rug plant years ago.

I started cleaning rugs before carpets i find carpet cleaning onsite more challenging as you are on the spot no chance to get wrong and correct it in front of the customer, I  used to clean may be 100 rugs a week and I never saw one go wrong.

Shaun

[Carpet Dawg]

how did you get so many Shaun?

[mark_roberts]

Chris

Do you pit wash your rugs?

And how do you remove the dry soil?

Thanks
Mark

[Paul Moss]

Shaun the comments i made above was not to be derogatory to the guys mentioned, they are all very well skilled and pro cleaners. What i meantbwas that rug cleaning seems to be the lstest fad and only since Nick Von White startedvsome expensive rug courses did every body else jump on it and make a big thing about cleaning rugs with Master Rug Certs  . If you go back 5 years there where no coursesvas such and the ncca did not even include it.

Like the leather fad a few years ago where one company still makes a big thing about it .

Its only cleaning....with common sense and a few baic skills and rules