Gum

[Louis]

I have an account that just fired the g/m. I have cleaned this place for 8 years now. The owner decided to use another cleaner and was not happy with them. So they called me up to bid on it again. I never removed gum at the account. They always had the employees doing it with freeze cans.

This is a large arcade area with lots of gum. Do you charge by the piece?

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'd estimate the additional time and materials it will take to remove the gum (separate from cleaning). Then see if they want you to do it or if they want to do it.

They will be cheaper with the $7.00 an hour kids and a can doing it. No matter how much more efficient you are, you'll still be the more expensive choice.

 

[FB7777]

I don't find gum to be all the problematic, just go super slow back and forth over the gum and then spot the residual with a solvent .

If you have a helper it doesn't add more than 20% additional time to the job

I would charge a premium obviously, over your normal rate for the additional time and PiTA factor

 

[Wing It]

If the gum is ridiculous, I would claim to remove a certain number of pieces (10-20?) each time if they agree to have me on a routine. 8 year old grinded in gum is not fun to remove.

 

[Louis]

I'm going to raise the price to cover the gum. If I get the account then the 1st time should be the worst. I'm sure he will find someone cheaper, I'm tired of doing 10 cent a sf night cleaning.

 

[Desk Jockey]

.
Ten cents isn't bad provided you're able to produce some good numbers. 1200-1500 sq/ft is not bad at .10. But 700-800 isn't worth the trouble unless a part of a huge maintenance contract where you have multiple technicians running for hours on end.


Encapstore.com has an excellent fast acting gum remover but if you have a lot of spots be sure to cover the extra chem costs.

 

[glenboy]

O MAGIC from steam genie dissolves gum..best I have ever tried....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

[Out of Character - 0]

I send one of our hot trucks to those jobs. They come out easy with 250-260F and a 2 jet gecko edger or gum remover wand. The gum wand causes more pile distortion than the Gecko tile tool. Yes I know we're talking about carpet.