Comm & Encap Cleaners advice needed

[Captain Morgan]

I was getting my oil changed at the Chevy dealer Sat. Owner asked if he should get the showroom floor cleaned? It looked WAY overdue.. and he sort of chuckled as if to acknowledge that.
Here are some of the specs:
Approx 2500+ sq ft. haven't measured
Old CGD carpet, seams splitting in a couple spots.
Heavy traffic lanes from two entrances off the lot, one off the repair shop.
He said it gets cleaned twice a yr. (but I don't think that's true).

Thoughts I was considering:
1) Rotary Scrub w/red pad, HWE. Maybe post bonnet (which I've never done) to help remove any additional dirt.
2) Encapsulation cleaning. Perhaps more as an interim cleaning option to help to maintain the appearance. I explained this method briefly to him and he asked if the carpet would get slippery if whatever didn't get vacuumed up got wet? I told him no, but it did make me stop and think a bit.

Never heard anyone mention or complain about crystalized encap reconstituting or becoming a problem ie; slip issue, if re-wet repeatedly when/if not removed completely from the carpet.

About me: I have NO large commercial accounts, no restaurants, dr's offices, gyms, physical therapy offices, but understand that if I'm going to survive this economic "correction" I need to pick up some accounts. I have a 175 but no tank. The 175 has a feed plug on the right side of the deck but my driver is made of wood with no holes so it doesn't look like it will work with a gravity feed tank. I'm starting to save for a new 175 w/tank and driver and maybe brush attachment.

Questions for the experts :
If this was your estimate, what would you do? I don't have enough knowledge in this area to have much confidence in my estimating and pricing for commercial cleaning whether HWE or Encap.

Anyone have any knowledge/experience with the owners question about the encap properties if re-wet?

Any suggestions or advise is greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks Bill Morgan

 

[R W]

If there's anything worse than a Chinese restuarant, it's a car dealership!

 

[Hoody]

Use a green pad to prescrub and post pad, hit it with something big. Get it dry fast, those split seams will make that carpet rise as more and more humidity gets in the room.

 

[Steve in Omaha]

Bill,

You already have the 175, so you are in like Flinn. Ask greenie about encap cleaning using your 175. Learn how to detail vacuum (be a neat freak). Go after professional offices.

 

[tmdry]

Quarterly or Monthly max.

Don't get too technical with encap if you're not too sure how it works. I would not bring up equipment or methods with clients period(unless they ask), at the end of the day they just want clean carpets and by you giving them all these info you're just going to confuse them. When a client is confused you have a higher chance of losing the sale.

Just tell client to vacuum like they always do. You won't need to get caught up in the details of the crystalization. If you find that your client(s) are not vacuuming properly, than it's time for them to get a cleaning company. Most commercial places have them, if they don't have one or don't want to get one, I would rethink the account as they could careless about cleaning. Either way you always want to prevac.

Carpets that are slippery tends to be grease. You answered correctly.

The 1st cleaning will be the "restorative cleaning". Prevac like no tomorrow, scrub w/ your 175 as mentioned above(cimex will be better, I would go with Fiber Max(gray) @ excellent supply), use strong chem of choice, TM extract w/ glide, post pad w/ your 175 with good pads, I'd recommend calling John G(he's a mod here), and getting some of his pads, they pull the most soil, if you want decent pads you can call Clark and see if he still has his pads available as well, they're cheaper, but I haven't compared them for that type of scenario.

The last step would be to dry w/ airpaths if you have 1. Post dry padding(w/ glads or clarks pads) will help w/ drying times as well.

If you want to encap, I would encap(spray it) before you post pad the floor. Release IT DS is one of the best or try Les Jones new Encap, Greenie sells it as well. I haven't tried it, but would be nice to hear about the Tripple Strength.

That's all for 1st cleaning. The following cleanings will be "interims", which you can straight encap, but I bid in 2-3 months for you to extract near higher traffic lanes or have client buy walk off mats for the areas going to the repair shop, outside, etc. If they do it, you might be able to only need to extract less often. This way you can put in your bid, "if walk off mats are used, we can save you money on cleanings or you will get longer cleaner carpets".

I would do a 2nd visit to do another inspection, measure, and see if they have any hard surface(tiles), this would be a good time to get into that. Color sealing like Mikey has done w/ his Honda dealer account is profitable and the results are far better than carpet. If you don't have sealer, I would call Steve @ Grout Perfect, he can help you get started. You will get jobs by doing demos(look at Mikeys thread about stealing commercial jobs).

If all goes well, you could work a venture marketing w/ them.