[cheryl new]

Good evening all,

I have a 3 bedroom house to clean from top to bottom.  The babies room has milk vomit stain/odour in various places.  All other carpets are mainly traffic area light soiled.  Carpets are polyprop - wool mix.

I'll be using microsplitters woolsafe throughout.

As this will be my first customer, my thoughts on procedure are :

Set up in hall/outside (weather dependent) using tarpaulin to protect surrounding area. 

Vac entire contracted areas so that I can put the vac back in van out of way. 

Prespray 1 room at a time, agitate, extract, put air mover in then move onto next room. 

For babies room - can AirX be used to rid the carpet of milk odour?  Otherwise, which product will work equally as good and can it be used in a babies room.

After all b'rooms have been cleaned, move onto landing & stairs, then lounge and finally the hall.

What procedure would you use and how much time would you alot to such a job.

Also, what do you do if the prespray goes onto skirting boards?  Wipe off with a clean dry towel or with clean wet towel?

And last but not least, what would want to be making on such a job.

Thanks.

Cheryl

[nick.solution]

Hi Cheryl

Either woolsafe or normal chemical would be ok on this job, I would clean the lounge first as this would probably be the first room required.

As to the babies Air X is a coctail of live bacteria if the spillage has deep penetrated the carpet this is an ideal approach, the customer should be aware of the initial relief from the odour provided by the odour couteractant, and that around the twelve hour mark the bad odour could return temporarily, this is caused as the bacteria breaks down the milk product this will dissipate rapidly.

As for the skirting boards, wipe these with a wet/damp cloth.

As for price this ones difficult any where from £150-250 this is something you will have to research in you own area.

Best regards Nick

[Ken Wainwright]

I would endorse everything that Nick has said.

The only potential for a problem that I can see is the fibre mix. 50/50 wool/poly has a tendancy to pill, especially on loop pile carpets. Look very carefully at the carpets to see if they have "fluffed up" and could do with an extra pass with the Flymo   If this is so, explain to your customer that it will be more obvious when cleaned. Short of going over with some shears, the only recomendation is for the customer to vac regularly and well with a good upright vac. It will then gradually improve.

Good luck with Invoice No. 0001

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[martin19842]

hi there,

the most difficult bit is the pricing.

1) price cheap- do a good job- lots of referral work = turnover = profit.  downside priced too low, work outweighs profit.

2) price high - deliver professional sevice get referrals still make x profit.

I personally would be looking at The £250 plus VAT mark. but we arent the cheapest, we turn up when we say we do, so the job that we say we will do, and clients are happy.

good luck

regards

martin

[Dynafoam]

Hi Cheryl,

A few comments in addition to the good advice already received.

The idea of getting the entire house pre-vac'ed, then your shinny new Sebo back on the van sounds good - But this would likely entail moving furniture several times or possibly leaving the whole house like an obstacle course.

Situations vary, but my general approach would be along the lines of

1) Pre-vac the clear area  (generally the middle) of the first room.
2) Move furniture toward middle, vac outsides.
3) Place vacuum cleaner out of the way in second room to be cleaned.
4) Pre-treat, agitate and rinse the outer part of room.
5) Replace furniture, using foil tabs where appropriate.
6) Clean centre of room.

Remember the golden rules of moving furniture - move nothing more than twice and move nothing further than necessary.

I would normally clean the lounge first - first cleaned -first dry - first back in use. This is the room that the family are likely to need before bedrooms. Thereafter you progress plan is fine.

For the babies room, either AirX or Microclean (which was on your shopping list) would be a reasonable approach if the milk has penetrated through the carpet, but for smaller spill confined to the pile a more topical treatment with a protein spotter such as Prochem B144 Stainpro should suffice. If you take the bio-enzymic approach, remember that this is applied after the clean and not rinsed out - advise the customer of the comments made by Nick to avoid an unnecessary call-back.

Good luck with your first job. Allow yourself a long day to complete the task bearing in mind that you have not the most powerful machine, so will need to make some slow drying strokes.

[cheryl new]

Thank you so much.  These are excellent pointers.

Thanks again.

Cheryl

[Dave_Lee]

Hi Cheryl,
Good replies given so far, the only thing I can add, is in consideration of using the blower/turbo dryer. When you have completed the first room, making sure the window(s) are open, place blower so as to direct air flow to cover as much as possible of the room, usualy diagonally. Get it in a corner, away from anything that might be drawn into the air intake, or just outside the room door, propping the door open so that the return draught doesnt close the door.
Dont wait for that room to feel dry before moving to second room, and so on.
Beware items that can be blown around, like Pop Pouri, soot from open fires (Including Gas Fire Coals) Wall hangings, pictures, framed photos etc that may not be well secured to walls or may topple over and fall from where they stand.
Good Luck, you will probably feel awkward on this your first job, but you will soon operating on auto pilot.
Dave.

[mark_roberts]

Whats airx and how does it work?

As this is your first job (all the best) take note of the times it takes to set-up and down, to clean each room etc.  This will help determine your cleaning speed and therefore your pricing for your second job.

When working in bedrooms it can sometimes be very very time consuming to move all the furniture so offer to clean the traffic lanes only at a reduced rate.

Carpet skidders can help your back when moving heavy furniture esp beds.

Before you do anything fill the machine up and turn the heater on so its hot when your ready to extract.

Mark

PS. remember this job as it may be your first of a successful business to come. Unfortunately I cant remember my first job but I do remember the problems I had in my first week.