I'm gonna cry BS here..

Mikey P

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Found this on Facebook.

Stephen Dusty Roberts I worked in the shop today, took in over 6k in service work and averaged over 9 per sq ft! Now I am playing pick up sticks with my 6 year old son Daytona!



Randy? Oz?


Does the Rug Weasel thing there are out of work housefraus on Facebook thinking of setting up their condo car ports in to Rug Studios?



9 bucks my dusted butt.
 

-JB-

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Re: I';m gonna cry BS here..

Debils abakit....

He's talking, cleaning, deodorizer, protector applications, AND the biggie, underlayment sales in that figure, guaranteed, and the underlay sale is where the good/easy money is.
 

rhyde

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Re: I';m gonna cry BS here..

That’s not unreasonable depending on what the add-on’s are…in fact if it was all hand repair/restoration on a rug I’d argue he potentially could be losing money depending on the type of repair work, proficiency of the repair person.
 

rhyde

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now and again but I base repair hourly not by the sq ft my best was 22K in a day one large rug that accounted for most of the $$ that went off to Turkey for restoration unfortunately that doesn’t happen every day when all was said and done I didn’t pocket that much..cost of business don't ya know. I’m assuming dusty is dividing the sq ft of all rugs by the gross charges if so maybe he made 3.00 Sq FT on most rugs and 50.00 Sq Ft with repair on a rug and that brings the average to 9.00 Sq FT..? The important part of course is his NET it’s more $$$ running a wash plant and hand restorations can eat you alive ?

I’ve been told Dusty shampoos and extracts but rarely washes anything ..if he charges 3 a foot he’s making a killing sending rugs out the door slightly less dirty than they came in
 

Mikey P

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I’ve been told Dusty shampoos and extracts but rarely washes anything ..if he charges 3 a foot he’s making a killing sending rugs out the door slightly less dirty than they came in


Kat Blatchford just rolled over in her box. :shock:
 

rhyde

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I think thats more the norm there’s not that many cleaners dedicated enough that really want to get rugs clean,..I mean really clean.
it's not glamorous and a large % of custys would know the difference anyway
 

Bob Foster

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I deal with Dusty on a regular basis at his Luv-A-Rug location where I take my better rugs. My trade deal is a 40% discount. His shop is generally busy with retail drop offs and pickups of better rugs. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he does extremely well.

He actively up sells padding, repairs, fringing and always handing out spotter kits.

http://www.luvarug.com/
 

randy

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I personally think that much of this $6-$9 a square rug cleaning talk is perpetuated by those connected to enterprises selling rug cleaning set-ups, equipment and training classes. Here in the Dc Metro area the most expensive rug plants out there are charging $3.75-$4.00 a square, including pick up & delivery. Think about it this way: cleaning a 9x12 for $972.00 ? How often does that really happen ? I'm reminded of that post from Mike Brummett about his new $10,000 a month rug cleaning operation in Kansas, right before a class was being offered.

"Somewhere over the rainbow".

Before sinking a boat load of capital into a rug cleaning plant (clearly the industry's latest trend) think about where your future customers are coming from. Younger folks today aren't buying into that "family heirloom investment grade rug" crap. They are buying machine made rugs for $300-$400 that look as good as the $20,000 real deal. High End rug dealers are disappearing like crazy all over the country. In the coming years you will see more Rugs from Target & Home Depot then some of the boutique shops. The current financial trends are going to continue and bring in many changes in consumer buying trends. Every industry will be affected and if you are gearing up to be the state of the art rug cleaning shop, you are trying to surf on a puddle.

Most carpet cleaners would be better served by focusing on the basics of this business. Marketing better so that truck mount operates more hours, up selling more upholstery cleaning and perhaps offering T&G cleaning.

Increase profits by better utilizing your current equipment WITHOUT increasing your fixed costs.

Have you noticed how few of these folks teaching these get rich with rugs courses are actually doing just that ?
 

Bob Foster

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luvaruginvoice001.jpg
 
F

FB7777

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Bob,

Thanks for proving Mike's point ...

Luv a rug worked on 135 sq ft ( including a repair )

Retail cost was $389 including tax which breaks down to just under $3 / foot

Dusty discounted it to you for $240 which is approx $1.75/ ft


Not bad pricing... but just slightly under $9 / foot :mrgreen:
 

LisaWagnerCRS

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I have to agree that tossing around $9 a sq ft implies that this is what you are charging for cleaning.

If you have a flood damage, and you are billing for emergency extraction and handling, cleaning and santizing soak, and minimal corrective work - that could be a consistent number to toss around.

Pad can sell around $2-$2.50 per square foot, so if you have a midrange $3-$4 a sq ft cleaning charge, daily dough can be solid. If you are doing additional treatments like Hyde mentions - odor removal, stain removal, repellant treatment - this all can add up too. Just as if you are adding tile & grout and upholstery to the job you are on right now cleaning carpet - you can make a nice hourly rate well and above the "typical" carpet cleaning hourly take.

I've been testing the Odorox machine on rug odor removal ... not sure exactly how to charge for that - it's a sweet piece of machinery.

(Thanks for spelling Blatchford correctly Mikey.) :)

the rug chick,
Lisa
 

Jim Pemberton

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Good to have you here Lisa.

There is a question about a 200 year old rug I'd like to know your opinion of on another thread.
 

steve g

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I don't get all the rug cleaning hype, IMO the oriental rug is out of style where I live, you just don't see them anymore even in large expensive homes. I seldom see a rug in a home that is worth spending the 3/ft to clean. your average 35yr old demographic making 200 a year and living in a 600 k home just isn't likely to have a hand made oriental in their home. keep in mind 600k is a fairly expensive home around here. not saying the work isn't out there just saying I see no way in hell someone making a good living on it, wash pit or otherwise. back when I was a kid orientals were far more common, but that was before the poly printed rugs proliferated the market place. also during this time machine made wool rugs have also dug into the market share. I got a nice karastan rug that looks pretty darn oriental off a water damage job, new it was prolly a $1500 rug, but I gave it to my day because it doesn't fit the style of my home. orientals are for old folks

I used to work for a company that had what they called a wringerinser, it had a 2" cooper supply line that fed about 60 jets, the thing was about 20 ft wide and I was told it was hooked up to the fire hydrant. It also had 2 large drums that where rubber coated and ran the width of the machine. they jacked together with something like a hydralic jack. you would flip a giant ball valve it would turn the jets on and essentially blast and soak the rug as it was fed through the large wringing drums out the other side. it soaked the rugs all the way down and rung them out at the same time out the back side. I would think this would be alot faster than using a wash pit, I am told that originally the machine was used in dying carpets. anyone else heard of such a machine
 

LisaWagnerCRS

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Thanks all...

Rug cleaning has good revenue as much as ANY niche does, as long as you know who your target market is, and you market it aggressively. 15% of the rugs coming through our plant are synthetic area rugs - we use the same labor to give them a wash, and charge the same price. People who value "clean" will pay for clean.

JIM - send me the link to the question - I tried to search for "rug" and could not track down what post you mentioned. Sorry ... I'm not MikeyBoard savvy.


Lisa
 
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LisaWagnerCRS said:
Thanks all...

Rug cleaning has good revenue as much as ANY niche does, as long as you know who your target market is, and you market it aggressively. 15% of the rugs coming through our plant are synthetic area rugs - we use the same labor to give them a wash, and charge the same price. People who value "clean" will pay for clean.

JIM - send me the link to the question - I tried to search for "rug" and could not track down what post you mentioned. Sorry ... I'm not MikeyBoard savvy.


Lisa

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34733
 

Mikey P

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Lisa


What percentage of rugs, synthetic, wool or otherwise get fully washed compared to extracted/"wanded"?


Would you say that most rug studios/plants in the US are extracting far more then they let on for time savings?



Personally if I were to ever get back into the Rug Racket I would mimic Ken Snows operation as closely as possible.

one more question, have you ever visited the Talisman plant here in Santa Cruz?
 

LisaWagnerCRS

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Mike,

Every rug coming through our plant is wet washed - we don't wand/extract. And we charge the same for all of them (extra for silks and fake silks for the extra hand grooming).

I bet most rugs these days are being surface cleaned with a wand - which is why a real plant can always create a night and day difference if they follow up after the other method. But there is more time and labor involved - and risk - so you are right, many cut corners.

David Walker and I have chatted throughout the years - he is friends with Lesley Torres who does our American Indian reweaving work for the past almost 3 decades. His operation - as you know - is geared more toward the conservation crowd, museum pieces, and he makes much more per square foot than Dusty does on cleaning prices. :) I like his set-up. I have not visited Santa Cruz - just had photos and some chats, and we send referrals to one another every once in awhile when my clients move up there or vice versa. He is an incredibly nice person.

Now - the difference between a specialized niche operation like Talisman, and Ken's equally cool much larger volume based operation are very different. I personally like the smaller workshop model. The big plants are cool - just not my style. I like to stay as a big "small" business ... it has really good margins because you don't have to run specials all of the time to keep volume way up. Neither model is the one and only way to do it - you pick the flavor you like. I think Ken is very knowledgeable, and there is a lot to learn from him.

Lisa
 

Mikey P

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Are you aware that David's shop is up for sale?

He semi retired to New Mexico.

He and his wife still do the ultra high end Jesus' diapers kind of repairs at home but the rug washing studio is up for grabs.


But he has serious competition in town now.

http://www.rugcarestudio.com/
 

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