[kinder clean]

I had a call to yesterday to quote for a nursing home, going to see them on Tuesday, may be some upholstery too, its 21 bedrooms so way bigger than anything I've ever touched so far.

Can anyone give me some pointers like:

How often should I recommend they have the carpets/chairs cleaned?

Do you guys finish this size job in 1 day?? or is it expected to take longer, would I need to get a helper?

Any tips for pricing, is £1.50 p/sq mtr too cheap ?

How about legal documents - I've seen a few posts mentioning risk assesment? what is this, do I need it and if so where would I get one?

Please just throw any other tips that you might have.

Thanks

Paul
Kinder Clean 

[davep]

I would price it bt time rather than sq m, they may also prefer it if it is done quickly as it is a bit of an inconvenience?

Take into account urine  that may need to be tackled, and be aware of health and saftey with wet floors..  Use lm where poss maybe, you could use craftex catalyst as this sanatizes and protects the carpet too?

[clinton]

Same here with the time wise rather than sq metre mate.

Plenty of urine remover a must 

Will you have to move all the beds and side draws etc from there rooms?

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Nursing homes are notoriously tight fisted so dependant on what amount of work you have you'll have to be competitive but I would sell it with carpet disinfectant to kill odours and bacteria also you will need a risk assessment because of all of the wires and pipes or you could end up with a mighty claim.

Shaun

[Jim_77]

Are you doing the whole lot all in one go or a certain area?  Just bedrooms or corridors and communal lounges too?  Maybe they don't know what they want done yet, they might be "seeing how much it costs" before they decide.

21 bedrooms, plus corridors plus lounges etc, gotta be a few thousand square feet at least.  Big job if you get it all, certainly way more than one day solo with a portable, probably 3.

At £1.50/metre you may find you're ripping yourself off.  As said above, this is one instance where I've started charging for time rather than by the metre, because it might take me two hours to clean 30m of carpet spread between four bedrooms all round the building.  If you're doing a straight run all the way through an area it may be better to charge per metre though.

You'll maybe  find your productivity a lot lower than you'd like, if it's the kind of place where you have to cart all your stuff backwards and forwards all day.  I have this problem with a home that I've done a lot of work for recently.  I've tried to get the manager to have certain areas cleaned at one time but he keeps just presenting me with a list of room numbers all in different places.  This means I have to effectively set up and pack away for each one, dragging everything around with me.  Good job most of the rooms can be accessed from outside!

I'd definitely recommend leaving your machine outside near a window and running the hoses and cables in.  That will reduce trip hazards, keep the noise down and most importantly stop you from blowing pee-smelling air all round the building.

Oh and you'll have to disinfect all your kit and afterwards, it'll smell like an old man's pants.  Not only will it stink your van out but you'll take the odour with you to your next customer - not a good PR move!

I'd have some rubber gloves with you to handle anything like the waste water, rotary brush, bonnets etc.  Wash your hands before eating/drinking etc.

Chances are the place is going to smell of urine, when you get it wet it will smell worse.  You need something that's going to address that, and something that smells nice to mask the odour during and after cleaning.

I've been getting outstanding results with M-Power and the odour neutraliser from Solution UK, first extracting after a very long dwell and then re-applying the solution and bonneting over afterwards.  Thats both visual results and killing the smell

[Joe H]

I posted this on another forum but may be beneficial to others who dont frequent elsewhere!

The care homes I have done have all had a carpet cleaning machine of their own ie rug doctor.

They have not asked for the rooms to be doe - just corridors, reception area and lounges.

Whwn I have quoted for rooms I have asked for £26 for a one bed care home room which may be 12'x10', but as I said, not been asked to do. Must have been too much or they got the rug doctor out.

I dont particularly like doing care homes by myself, as hoses and cables are a trip hazard and the oldies are still wandering about (even in the middle of the night), so you may want to build in a 2nd person.
 

[carlton care]

Good advice from the last two posts. Like Joe, I've done many corridors but very few rooms, there are usually a lot of people who don't or barely leave their rooms

[garry22]

Some of this may sound funny but it's actually serious...

1/ We use Dry Fusion with bactoshield but even so, there is a period when the carpets are wet and therefore dangerous to residents, particularly where carpet meets a hard floor. Keep a turbo dryer with you and try to dry the carpets off as you go along (have the dryer pointing backwards on the bit you've just cleaned. Try to keep cables away from doors etc.

2/ If you have to keep people off don't just put wet floor signs out. You have to put a physical barrier there to stop residents walking across. If you don't, they'll climb over.

3/ Liaise with the owners re when is the best time to work. READ the TV TIMES in advance! I'm serious. Once we were scheduled to clean a TV lounge in the evening....

What we did not know was, that it was smack in the middle of one of the biggest Eastenders episodes ever! That's right, it was Little MO's court case.

There was nearly a FULL BLOWN RIOT.

Can you imagine trying to move thirty residents out just as Little Mo was facing life in prison. We got twenty nine out but one resisted all attempts. Now this is true.... four care workers grabbed a chair leg each and physically lifted the woman (still in her chair) and carried her out into the kitchen.

After that, we always checked the TV listings before we booked a job there.

4/ Make sure the chairs get put back in the right order. If you don't you are asking for trouble. Move all the chairs on one side straight across to the other side. Clean half the room, move them back to their original positions, then repeat the exercise. There is a definite pecking order in these homes, usually with the "top dog" nearest the TV.

5/ Be aware that residents do wander around at all hours. Some poor souls, will have dementia and will not know where they are. They can get really upset. You may be the first person they come across and you may well have to make sure they are safe or calm before a member of staff arrives.

All these things have happened to us in the past.

Garry

[murky]

This sounds just like my house at any time in the evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Roper]

Agree with whats been said-
very rare for them to clear the area of residents especially emi units*(dementia)
Short staffed so you will have to deal with residents getting in way etc always looking over shoulder to see if they,re going to trip over your equipment or use it as a toilet or somewhere to put their sandwich.
Usually antisocial hours.
Oh and they take forever to pay if part of a large group.
I still havnt found a way of dealing with the odour problems successfully in these places yet.
Mike

[Jim_77]

Drop me an email Mike, may be able to help you out.

jimnealuk@gmail.com

[garry22]

Sorry to mention a "foreign" product on someone else's forum but....

Dry fusion using bactoshield, plus turbo dryers, followed up by another Wrennels product called odourban did the job. You sometimes need a syringe  + needle to inject into the source.

The key is get the carpets dry ASAP. As Jim said, get the best ventilation possible

Garry

[clinton]

Any news on your quote yet paul