[MaidFresh]

I need to quote for my first ever full house one-off clean 

Its a 4 bed end of tenancy. A bit of a mess, but with next to none furntiure to clean around.
The house owner is willing for carpets to be replaced if uncleanable. So really its just washing walls down, windows, skirting boards then get the hired Rug Doctor on the carpets.

I'm guessing 6 hours for 2 people should cover it, with me doing the Rug Doctoring too.

I was going to quote £150 but after reading this forum i'm thinking its a bit low?
It's going to cost £20 for the Rug Doctor and £20 for the chemicals (But i'll have plenty left over for the next job).

What do you guys reckon?
And if anyone got the spreadsheet that Ian Rochester uses, can someone pass it on please :-)
email@maidfresh.co.uk

Cheers

[suffolkclean]

I think 6 hours is a bit on the light side if you say its a bit of a mess. Kitchen could take 3 hrs alone, bathroom 2 hrs, 45 mins per bedroom, then you've still got hall, stairs, landing & lounge. I'd say 9 hours minimum x £_________ your hourly rate

Then seperate cost for you 'Rug Doctoring' . All I will say is this is not the best solution for carpet cleaning. If you intend on providing this service you should really get some training. Prochem do great courses.

Barbara

[MaidFresh]

I know, I know.
I'm trying to concentrate on Maid services, but as this job has come up I need to manage with what i've got at my disposal.

The house owner is willing to replace any carpets that are too bad, so surely the Rug Doctor will give them a decent enough clean?

How's my price sound?

[MaidFresh]

If this becomes a reguler thing, I will definately invest in some training and equipment.

You say 9 hours, is that for 2 people? So 18 hours altogether?
As I originally thought 6 hours with 2 people, so 12 man/lady hours.

I think maybe I will give him a quote for cleaning, then give him the option of adding the Rug Doctoring at an extra £x.

[Timmy Boy]

if you shrink the carpets this could end up cost you more than £150.00!!
I have seen some horrific sites by using this piece of equipment on dirty carpets! Be careful!! Even if they say they will replace them if they dont come clean, get it in writing.
Regards
Tim

[KLEEN-ZONE]

I would  quote for the general clean alone at more than £150 , and in your position sub the carpets to a local professional carpet cleaners , as tim says, it can go wrong, and rug doctors are rubbish.

Steve

[vacman]

Surely there will be problems too if the subcontractors get it wrong...having read the details about the business, I'd be more keen to do only the domestic work and let the client call in the carpet cleaners directly.

[suffolkclean]

I'd price for your 12 hours of cleaning at the hourly rate your happy with - remember to include costs for all the equipment you need, your insurance etc. DONT tell them an hourly rate give it to them as a total price.
Regards to the carpets, I wouldn't Rug Doctor it, if it goes wrong then you don't want the word getting around your service is rubbish when that wasn't even what you started up to do! I'd either get a quote from another company and arrange them to do the work the same day your there or get your customer to arrange it. Carpet cleaning is not straight forward rug doctors are S*** and no wear near do a 'professional' job. But its obviously up to you.

Barbs

[MaidFresh]

I got the job  at £250 

Excellent. The only thing is, he wants the carpets doing and the jobs getting done tomorrow, so the Rug Doctor it is i'm afraid 

At least I know for next time, so I can get some contacts and prices now for outsourcing the carpet cleaning in future.

There's only 5 carpets to do, and he knows he's going to have to replace some, so if it does go wrong I'll just tell him the carpet needs replacing. I've told him we're hiring a Rug Doctor as we dont do carpet cleans as we're mainly a Maid service, and he's cool with that.

First job, i'm sure it'll be an eye opener.

Any tips for getting rid of the smell of dog?

Cheers

[Pristine Clean]

Yes there are carpet cleaning chemicals that are specially formualated for that!

You will need to go to your local chemical supplier.

Dave

[suffolkclean]

Adding water to the carpets with your rug doctor and not extracting the dirt out with a dog smell on the carpets is a really bad mixture!

You will smell it stronger once the carpets are wetted and it defo will be WET with your machine

[MaidFresh]

OK. Any ideas where I can hire a better machine to do the job?

[suffolkclean]

I think if your doing the job tomorrow, you'll have to go with your original plan - when you hire your machine see if they sell something to eliminate odours - Good Luck - let us know how you get on.

Barbara

[suffolkclean]

Hi Maidfresh - how did it go? or are you still there?

[MaidFresh]

Hi Barbara,

Well!!
We where there from 09:30 till 15:00 and we're going to have to go back on Tuesday to finish off!!!
For a first job, I dont think it went too bad. Maybe I was just a bit optimistic on how long it would take us.

At first it seemed like we where getting nowhere, but as the day went on things looked better. We cleared, cleaned and scrubbed the top 2 floors and I 'Rug Doctored' all the carpets (It didn't get the stains out, but made them look better than they where).
All thats left is the ground floor. 2 living rooms and the kitchen, although a lot of the kitchen has been done, mainly the oven.

I reckon a couple of hours on Tuesday and it'll be sorted. I reckon the price was about right. I'm so glad I didn't go with my original price!! I guess it's one big learning curve and u've learned a lot this week. Mainly that its expected to pay 3 figures for a full house clean, and also that it needs a FULL day to do a 4 bedroom house.

Daz

[suffolkclean]

Hi Daz
I'm glad it went well.It's amazing how long it all takes. Have you employed a cleaner? I sometimes have 4 of us at a full house clean -if you get more of these you will definetely need help. I totally relate to what you said you seem to scrub & clean for hours and don't seem to be getting anywhere then all of a sudden it seems to take shape. Your price was actually cheap for carpet cleaning included - lets hop you get more
Barbara

Where are you from - your profile dosn't say

[MaidFresh]

Hi Barbara,

It was me, my wife and my mother in law on the job. Just paying the MIL cash in hand.
Obviously if things pick up, we will have to get staff in, although i'm not sure how it will work as currently we are running the Maid service like an agency so we dont have to employ cleaners. They will be self employed.

I know now that my price was too cheap. With the job coming out of the blue i hadn't prepared myself and actually thought even £150 would be too much  : but next time it would deffinately be £200+ without the carpets.

Here's looking forward to what the future brings

I am from the Wirral/Merseyside.

Daz