Deep Cleaning of hardwood floors

[adamh]

Does anyone deep clean hardwood floors? There is going to be a class on this.

Basic Coatings is the company name that is puting on the class an trying to sell you their stuff.

I was wondering if anyone is doing this. Here in Idaho most people have hardwood floors and I am wondering if it would be a good add on.

 

[PrimaDonna]

Yup....



We had the dirt dragon machine and swapped it out for a different one that Jon Don had due to some issues with the dirt dragon. We use all the basic coatings stuff. $1.50 sq ft. to clean and reply the top coat. $1.00 sq foot just to clean.

You can give us a call and John would be happy to talk to you about it.

 

[Charlie Lyman]

I used to offer it. You need to get $1 psf at least to make it worth the time. After the 100th estimate I drove to and didn't get because the floors were too far trashed to do anything with, I took it off the website. The problem here is guys will sand and refinish for $2 psf.

 

[Mikey P]

call me

 

[DangerkittyToTheRescue]

Basic Coatings has videos online too, check them out first.

I sell the products here in the store, we use their Dirt Dragon cleaning machines in the fleet too, about 3 years ago they updated the design which is more robust but you still have to do basic maintenance, keeping it clean, replacing the squeegees. I won't say that it is bullet proof machine though.

The machine does a nice job, good results but the most important part is your marketing.

 

[jcooper]

I am wondering if it would be a good add on.

Yes, you should. It's super easy and actually somewhat enjoyable. You won't get lots of work from it.

All you really need is a 175 roto, a few pads, towels, maybe a mop. I do very little top coat stuff, just cleaning.

 

[Mikey P]

You'll need THIS too.


we use it on most wood that we clean 50 to 100 feet at a time.

 

[wilpath]

yes, in fact there is a good deal on ebay right now, search dirt dragon

 

[Mikey P]

In my experienced opinion the Dirt Dragon does not not have enough heft to deep scrub very dirty floors.

I sold mine and now either pad/bonnet clean with the 175 or pad and PMF wand rinse small areas at a time.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Each floor is different for sure, in both types of soils and tolerance for cleaning. I use 175, OP, and occasionally 1500 rpm machine with a variety of pads or screens. Microfiber mops, lots of foam squeegees and 3M doodlebug tools.

Lots of product will "work", but it takes care to make them POP.

Different areas of the same floor may respond to different techniques, especially if damaged.

 

[Desk Jockey]

My Dirt Dragon sits and collects dust. We bought it a couple of years ago and thought we would offer "Wood" but have never gotten around to it. I think we have used it three times and its sat in the store since.

Some day when it slows down we need to get back to it. I still believe it is a viable service to offer.

 

[tmdry]

What charlie said...

 

[TigerJ]

anyone know much about screening processes for borderline floors ?
example ?

 

[hogjowl]

Talk to Taco. He can tell you all about avoiding border problems.

 

[Desk Jockey]

 

[handdi]

square scrub to recoat floors with it works great plus you can use it for vct also
i have a dirt dragon but use it as a electric mop more than anything else handy tool to have.
but to recoat the square scrub is the bomb.
guys do recoats around here for .85 a ft
we do a few but normally its a service call need it done now kind of thing.
but basic coatings finish is the bomb for sure i have it on my floors its great stuff but very pricey.
lowes has water based fiinishs for half the cost of basic coatings products also.
we need to do more recoats for sure.
i was speaking of real hardwoods here also not alum oxide refinished either.then ya need to do the basic coatings recoat system.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

You need to be able to accurately identify so many things.
Kind of wood, condition, installation bombs, kind of preexisting finish and color system. Kind of "stuff" that has been used on it.

If you guess wrong it will be a long day. A Holiday Inn University 1-day class won't make you an expert, but may help.

 

[dealtimeman]

Yup....



We had the dirt dragon machine and swapped it out for a different one that Jon Don had due to some issues with the dirt dragon. We use all the basic coatings stuff. $1.50 sq ft. to clean and reply the top coat. $1.00 sq foot just to clean.

You can give us a call and John would be happy to talk to you about it.

Meg nice video!!!

 

[TomKing]

In my experienced opinion the Dirt Dragon does not not have enough heft to deep scrub very dirty floors.

I sold mine and now either pad/bonnet clean with the 175 or pad and PMF wand rinse small areas at a time.

I would agree with Mike we use both. Call if we can help.
Our first job was 11,000sf

 

[knoxclean]

Meg what machine did you switch to?

 

[PrimaDonna]

Meg what machine did you switch to?

I'll have to check with John and let you know. I know we had some issues with "The Dragon". We returned to Jon Don and they either replaced with this one cause they no longer carried the Dragon, or just suggested we go with this one since there were lots of complaints/issues with the Dragon and we followed their suggestion.

 

[Mikey P]

Yeah..
I can find twenty wood pros who would pad and really re-coat for less than you're charging Meg..

 

[PrimaDonna]

Yeah..
I can find twenty wood pros who would pad and really recoat for less that you're charging Meg

Whatever...

Good for you.

 

[PrimaDonna]

Meg what machine did you switch to?

This one.

http://www.jondon.com/minuteman-port-a-scrub-14-inch.html

 

[Mikey P]

Whatever...

Good for you.

How many suckers did you find in 2014 willing to pay 2.50 a foot for your premium MopNGlow service?



Seriously, do them a favor and charge a buck to clean and apply the Basic "film" or send them to a real wood guy.
You'll be doing yourself a favor in reality, cause if they ever wise up, they're going be really pissed at you.


You'll get far more jobs too.

 

[hogjowl]

And furthermore, the less you charge for carpet cleaning, the more customers you'll get too.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

What kind of "finish" is being applied in the systems shown above? Real polyurethane, water based urethane, or an acrylic?

 

[PrimaDonna]

How many suckers did you find in 2014 willing to pay 2.50 a foot for your premium MopNGlow service?



Seriously, do them a favor and charge a buck to clean and apply the Basic "film" or send them to a real wood guy.
You'll be doing yourself a favor in reality, cause if they ever wise up, they're going be really pissed at you.


You'll get far more jobs too.

Where did you get $2.50 a square foot??? No wonder your all ramped up about this. We don't charge that much!!!!

 

[Mikey P]

I know it's hard, but try not to be an idiot here.

Cleaning a wood floor is virtually no different than cleaning a carpet.

Mop down 100 feet of neutral cleaner. Scrub with a white pad and 175 and lightly rinse wiht a hard floor wand. Zip. That's as clean as you're going to get any floor anybody has any business dumping water on. Squirt some of this stuff on and mop it in with a bladed Rubbermaid/Microfiber mop. $11 covers 500 exactly. Takes the same amount of time as applying carpet protector as it's so thin..

At $1.00 a foot if you can't make at least $200 an hour doing this simple service, go back to Taco Bell management school.


and at a buck you're ripping them off compared to what a real wood guy will do for $2.00

 

[Mikey P]

We use all the basic coatings stuff. $1.50 sq ft. to clean and reply the top coat. $1.00 sq foot just to clean.

yeah, phew, I read that wrong.

on my cell I thought you said 1.50 to clean and 1.00 to coat.


even though you're still .50 too high, you're off the hook.