[neil 47]

What proces does safeclean use .
Isee their van out and about a lot

Neil

[cloverclean]

Wet Clean

I am an ex Safeclean

[Bryan H]

I'm also ex-Safeclean,  left 15 years ago.

At that time we were supposed to use foam & a sponge !

I think they use HWE now,  but I stand to be corrected !

Bryan

[Len Gribble]

Must be HWE as I bump into one of there operatives buying a CFR machine.


Len

[neil 47]

thanks for the replys lads, I wondered because I had read that they used hawanii sponges 

Neil

[Bryan H]

Neil,

You are right ! Foam was produced from a conventional shampoo in a 'Foamer Unit', spread on to an area of carpet or upholstery & rubbed with a natural sponge which was rinsed in a bucket of water containing a small amount of de-foamer.

The theory being that the bubbles would penetrate into the pile and somehow lift the dirt to the surface, where it was removed by the absorbancy of the natural sponge.  It had similarities to the Chem-dry system of applying a bubbly solution to the carpet.

This tended to brighten the treated area, but as to how much soiling was removed, well, I will leave you to draw your own conclusions !   

Before anybody jumps on me, I am not denigrating Safeclean or Chemdry or any other system.  They can all have their place & their uses in appropriate circumstances.

Bryan

[Ian Gourlay]

Bet it was hard on the knees.


Why ex Safeclean.?

[Bryan H]

Very hard on the knees Ian, and as it was impossible to avoid kneeling on wet carpets, very sore as well.

Wore out several pairs of trousers in a short time !

I discovered I was not a natural franchisee, Too independant of mind & not good at following rules.

We parted company by mutual consent.  In other words I was pushed, and I happily jumped !

Saved myself a lot of money, and never regreted it for an instant.

Bryan     

[Len Gribble]

Bryan

Perhaps you could answer this, the phone number listed by them dose it go to a call centre or directly to the operative? I’m thinking call centre as when I ask the customer (having got the job) did they phone anyone a few mentioned Safeclean and had to wait for the call back which did not happen.

Len

[therapist]

Was Safeclean  not recently taken over by Guardsman and now servicw the latters' insurance work?

rob m

[Len Gribble]

Rob

In the early 90’s, Safeclean went from private ownership to today, being part of the Valspar Corporation with a 2.25 billion turnover and 8,000 staff worldwide.

Len

[Bryan H]

Len,

It is 15 years since I left Safeclean, but I believe their Head Office is still in the same place near Wantage.  At that time any enquiries received by them would be passed on to the relevant franchisee.  But of course in all other ways the franchisee operates as a separate business, with their own numbers and adverts, same as us independants.

Guardsman (Valspar) took over Safeclean shortly after I left them.  I would imagine that today it is a much improved company with a modern outlook, frankly it certainly needed a kick up the backside at that time.

Daniel,
Today it may well be worth joining them, but tread very carefully, as you should when considering any franchise operation.  You need to be able to do much better in the short term than you would as an independant, otherwise there is no point.

Don't forget that all the money you will pay a franchisor one way & another over a period of time will buy you a heck of a lot equipment, advertising, and promotions if you start up independantly.

I could go into a lot of detail about Safeclean as it was then, but not in print!  and I suspect much of it would not be relevant today.

Bryan