I'm new here, stirring some shiz up.

[Travis Sonderegger]

Hello, My name is Travis Sonderegger and I have posted a few times here and been doing some reading as well. John from Superior Cleaning Solutions sent me this way and will be providing me with supplies and equipment.

Now, I am going to stir up a little shiz. Dont hate me. I am running a Bissell Big Green Cleaning machine. It does better than the rug doctors, but still is lacking quite a bit. I live in a small community of about 2,000 and there isn't anyone else that cleans carpets, so that is why I started this up.

I have a full time desk job doing computer repair and working helpdesk for a natural gas processing plant. This gives me some time in the evenings and time on the weekends to do carpet. My wife does not like the idea at this point but some day when I start making good money I'm sure she will appreciate it. I am making some money now, but it is all going back into the business. Things are self sustained now, meaning I don't have to take any of my money to put into things, the business is keeping itself afloat.

I have a few employees I pay at a rate of $10-hr cash and they do pretty good work. Have them vacuum, prespray and rake, then I come in with the machine and clean the carpets. Then they come back and rake on the way out. I feel like I have a pretty smooth system going now.

I am currently saving money and I plan on buying a Ninja. I chose the Ninja because it only needs two 15A circuits and a lot of homes around here are older and do not have many 20A breakers.

Commercial and short carpets, my machine really sucks for cleaning them. Will they clean well with just a two jet wand or would you recommend something like the CX-15?

I had a few more things I was going to say but I cant remember what they were right now. Ask me questions, educate me, and thanks for all of the advice thus far!

 

[Goomer]

What do you mean "under the table" ?

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

What do you mean "under the table" ?

I changed it to say $10/hr cash. Meaning its not taxed or anything

 

[Mikey P]

Welcome Travis


Nice to see an upstart on here. Tell your wife you just found a 10 year head start for free.



Unless the Ninja has auto in and auto out, that CX15 will suck it dry in minutes.

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

Welcome Travis
Unless the Ninja has auto in and auto out, that CX15 will suck it dry in minutes.

When you say suck it dry, are you meaning you will blow through a ton of water in a hurry? It has a 13 gal tank I think. How long do you think that would last? Also, saying what you have, would you recommend something else instead, and how does just a wand do on those kinds of carpet?

 

[Mikey P]

The CX is a two man operation as well so keep that in mind and yes you'll be filling that fresh tank real often.


IMO the best job you can without auto feed is a shampoo scrub with a 175 and a wand rinse.


With Auto feed I'd use an Rotary Extractor.

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

"shampoo scrub with a 175", what does that mean?

 

[Mikey P]

That is a 175 (as in revs per minute)

That is a Shampoo brush. Both are from Jon Don.


Spray your prespray down with an inline or pump up sprayer, use the above to scrub it in and then rinse the loosened soil and prespray out with your Ninja/wand set up.

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

Thanks for the info. How would that compare to say the http://www.jondon.com/prochem-procaps-encapsulation-machine-deluxe.html

Would it be worth waiting and saving up the money to get a machine like that vs the 175?

Hold on, I need to remember we are talking commercial and not residential. Would one ever use the 175 on residential carpet? Also, would the procaps work well on comercial carpet or no?

 

[J Scott W]

The CX-15 will do a great job, but as Mike says will use a lot more water than you are currently using. Still will extract that water along with soils and leave the carpet dry.

You may want to consider a portable that has auto-fill and auto dump ability. John can show you some Nautilus models that will serve you well.

The 175 RPM and shampoo brush are a lower cost way to provide the important agitation needed to loose the soil, especially in commercial settings but many residential settings as well. There are brushes that will work fine for residential cut-pile carpets when needed. You may be able to find a 175 RPM floor machine at a pawn shop, on EBAY, Craig's List or in some customers closet. May only cost a couple hundred dollars or less.

A counter-rotating brush machine (CRB) (which is what the Procaps is) can provide agitation and also do a whole lot more. Great machine to have. Commercial carpet, residential carpet, rugs, tile and grout, concrete floors and such with the right brushes. But starting with a used 175 RPM floor machine at a good price will get you what you need much sooner. Than save for something better. You will be able to find better CRB machines than the Procaps.

 

[Mikey P]

Also, would the procaps work well on commercial carpet or no?

A Counter Rotating Brush machine is something you'll need further down the line. Not nearly heavy enough to bust greasy soil loose IMO.

and I like the Brush Pro units more than that one.


with a 175 you can pre scrub, Encap/Shampoo, buff hard floors, scrub stone and tile and post bonnet/pad as well.

 

[KevinD]

Just wait till one of those cash employees (probably without insurance or workers comp) gets hurt and sues you.
I know a person that it happened to. Between the lawyers and the State compensation board he will never be able to dig himself out financially.
I wouldn't worry about getting better equipment until you can properly set up a business.

 

[Dolly Llama]

John from Superior Cleaning Solutions sent me this way and will be providing me with supplies and equipment.

good hands there, Travis
John's a straight shooter
almost TOO straight sometimes..as he will hammer you about anything not "by the book"...as in using Fels Naptha or off the shelf peroxide from Sally's Beauty .
But he won't blow smoke up your azz


get a rotary scrubber and good portable extractor
The scrubber will allow you bonnet clean and encRap commercial for a stand alone method on com in decent shape.
on heavy soiled or trashed carpet, use the roto to pre-scrub

175 rotary is a very versatile tool ..buy it before you buy any other big ticket accessory to go with your porty


..L.T.A.

 

[JS41035]

The first thing you should do is take a day or two off. Spend one day with a proffesional cleaner. Use a Truckmount. Watch the production rates. Then make equipment choices. You can squander a lot of time and money if your not careful.
If your not directly in their market, alot of the guys here would take you on a job or two.
I know the feeling of using a Bane system (an electric Truckmount that has low performance) then seeing a high heat gas Truckmount with propane heat. It was night and day. The Bane system was not cheaper. It was just inferior. A lot of the equipment startup guys buy is not cheaper it is just inferior.
Get a written plan for your business. Know where you wanna go. Make equipment choices based on your goals. And cut the cash only employee stuff out. That will bite you.

 

[knoxclean]

As a start up why do you need someone to prevac and rake? Save the payroll and put it towards a better machine

 

[Captain America]

When I started I spent a lot of time and$ on portables buffers. Bonnet methods....
Even bought a souped up elec. truckmount with 3 plugs......
Spent about 5-6000$ and a lot of wasted time almost quit..
I finally listened to some truckmount guys and bought a 6000$ truckmount (2002) and it was like night and day.
You can buy a good refurbished or new truckmount between 5-10 k.
I would do some research on truckmounts before spending2-3000$ on a portable

 

[dealtimeman]

i think you are going to need to buy an aerotech truckmount to be able to correctly and most thoroughly clean your customers carpets, if not you are just cheating them!!!


J/K!!!!!!!

the fact that you are using so many steps shows that you will be successful cleaning. get with john about one of the nautilus units like scott w. recommended above and work from there. as you need to do more jobs in a day or just flat out want to raise your efficiency and level of cleaning, then get a good truckmount.


what justin recommended above is also a good idea, as in hookup with a tm guy and see how fast and easier it is.

BUT BUT BUT !!!!! I AM A FIRM BELIEVER IN DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS!!!

so get what equipment you are comfortable with both work wise and pocket wise and don't burry/hinder your chances for success with too much debt before you are ready!!!

i hope you do well!!!!

and remember there are no stupid real questions, so ask away!!!!

 

[Mike Draper]

John also sells the 175. they arent to expensive. You cab get a CRB ( procaps machine ) later down the line. Ive owned both. The 175 will be a better tool for you imo. for a town of 2000 a good portable should do just fine, unitl you can afford a truck mount.

 

[tubad sosad]

travis i'm confused are you commercial only or resi and commer cial?

if you want to really clean cgd then a great vacuum is essential. and vacuum slowly with clean filters and bags also. pick up as much dry dirt as you can before you get the c arpet wet. if you are going to get a portable then get the strongest one and use a good wand with a glide. you can get a cmp, westpac or a prochem quad jet used on ebay. and if you want a crb then they have whittaker brand ones on ebay too. they come in 15 inch wide and you can buy different brushes for it.

nice thing about a 175 is you can scrub with it before using the porty, and you can use it with bonnets after the porty. and you can use it by itself on areas that are not very dirty. for a vacuum a commercial royal is really good. they come in 18 inch wide path and are on ebay and CList.

 

[Russ T.]

Some components of a proper carpet cleaning are (in no particular order):

-heat
-pressure
-suction
-agitation
-chemistry
-experience

When a system lacks one component, you need to step up another or several others to compensate. If you are committed to using a portable, that's fine. It will cost you time and effort, but much less debt in the beginning. A decent portable, 175 for agitation with a brush, good chemistry and you are almost there. Experience can only be earned through the day to day operation of a system and it takes time.

I don't think a town of 2K can support much more than a guy doing carpets on the side with a portable. 2K people is a TINY town. I live in a town almost that small. BUT I have larger markets all over me. Maybe that's the case with you too?

Are you planning on doing Residential or commercial? Combination? Roughly what percentage of each?

Hang out here and you will learn A LOT!

Welcome and I wish you the best!

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

With a portable would a Rotovac 360i Work well?

travis i'm confused are you commercial only or resi and commer cial?

I am currently doing residential with a few small commercial jobs. I cleaned a counseling center once and am going to see if I can get them again. I want to get some better equipment so I can actually do a good job then I will go to some of the local hotels and stuff to see what I can do about things.

What about fans, do you guys like the standard carpet fans, or the kind that blows down from the center of the room?

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

There is a pretty small percentage of commercial around here, There are a few small hotels but not many people with commercial glue down carpet . I am in Monticello, UT. look me up on a map. Blanding is 30 min away and Moab and Cortez are about 60 min away. I am not sure about who is in Cortez if anyone, but Blanding has a man with a truckmount in his van. He has been trying to sell his business. He charges 17 cents per square ft. I charge 25 cents per square foot. Moab has a business there as well as someone who does mobile detailing or something of the sort and a few people who probably have their own gig like me with a residential machine. I want to get nice equipment and then expand out to the other towns. Word of mouth goes a long ways around here so I dont want to spread out before I can make a good name for myself, you know?

 

[TomKing]

John can get you into a small Prochem Blazer all pimped out. Auto pump out, electric reels and 60 gallon tanks.
Your payments will be around $400. Put it in a good used truck and you will be so far away.

Knowing what I know now if you can afford it I would go and get a CDS 4.8 fully loaded and have a $950 monthly payment. That will be a brand new van and the truck mount. There will be nothing you can not clean. You will be so far ahead. You will not need employees and you could do $3-5k part time as you get your business going easy.

By afford it can your current job back a payment. I would do it in a heart beat in hind-site.

 

[Spurlington]

Look into buying the business in Blanding. It's only 30 min away.

 

[dgardner]

Some components of a proper carpet cleaning are (in no particular order):
-heat
-pressure
-suction
-agitation
-chemistry
-experience
When a system lacks one component, you need to step up another or several others to compensate.

You warmed the hearts of new guys everywhere! They now know if they have no experience they can compensate by increasing suction!

(J/K - dont shoot me... )

 

[Mark Saiger]

Welcome Travis.

Really great to see you here and the other names I haven't seen.

There is a lot of good advice being thrown out and I hope it will help you.

I am looking forward to hearing more about you and seeing how things work out as you set out in your new adventure.

Thanks again for sharing here

 

[Russ T.]

You warmed the hearts of new guys everywhere! They now know if they have no experience they can compensate by increasing suction!

(J/K - dont shoot me... )

So true Dan. All the experience in the world, without the other proper components, won't help much either though.

Actually experience doesn't belong on that list. All the other things you can buy. Experience is a different kind of expensive.

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

He wants 15k for it. John says it is only worth half that

 

[Scott S.]

As a guy who started with a potty, then a bigger 35amp auto fill, auto chemicAl metering, auto dump porty. . Then a truckmount, I can say that a high performance potty can get a commercial job done, but as everyone said a 175rpm scrubber with either a green strip bonnet or a tan pad to scrub is the way to go unless you buy a truck mount with a rx20, a hoss 700, or a rotovac 360.

My setup on my potty for commercial was.

Masterblend truckforce, 500psi pump, plumbed all 2" with 100ft of 2" hose and a 2" wand with holed glide from green glides. It wasn't the best but It worked well,

For commercial
I used flex liquid as pre spray (the New powder is better) and I used power point liquid as a rinse agent, as it's easy to mix and pulls a lot more oils out of the carpet.

For residential
I used same machine same equipment but differant chems
I often used grunge gone by groom industries, bio break, zone perfect as presprays, depending upon soil levels.
As a rinse agent I used fab set as it will neutralize the high alkaline presprays I used. And left the carpet a lot softer.

The machine I used to drag into each house plug in, park by a bathroom, hook up to the sink, and put the autodump line in the toilet, and you could continuously clean a whole house. Same for residential, but use how water from their home, no cold, no warm, straight hot, it will only be warm by the time you use it but it helps.

After figuring out my truckforce I bought an astro van and left it in it most of the time as I could usually park close enough to hook up and clean.

Only thing about using a party is foam. Foam kills vacuume, so the New powder flex is a lot better for everything today because it doesn't foam as much as other high ph products, And I would use either clean free or end zone as a rinse.

Buy a good vac as it will save you tons of time with a potty.

But I'd I had to do it all over I'd buy a truckmount sooner, I still have both of my portables, but my first machine the century top is going into Jim pembertons antique collection. My truck force 3500 is a good back up machine and is great when you have a big job or wanna have two techs running at the same time. Or while your truck mount gets fixed or repaired as they need love once in a while.

 

[Travis Sonderegger]

Buy a good vac as it will save you tons of time with a potty.

You say buy a good Vac, what is meant by this, are you talking about getting a good vacuum for before you spray ? Or be sure the porty has a good Vac on it?