how do you guys measure?

[juniorc82]

when you bill by the square ft do you measure every nook and cranny and charge for the area you actualy clean or do you measure the room and give consideration for objects that are in the room? I have called competetitors in my area and some say they charge by the actual sq ft and some say the size of the room and try and move and go around what they can. at the end of the day all the prices came out to be simular . one guy said .22 a square by the sq foot of room and another said .39 for actual square feet cleaned it pans out to be about the same once objects and furniture taking up space come into play.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Wall to wall, unless you enjoy jerking off.

 

[hogjowl]

This is the most common DAQ asked with the possible exception being "what's your favorite prespray?"

Why make it hard. Just measure length times width and let it go at that.

And if your inner Christian just won't let you let it go at that, then charge them a lower s.f. price for those rooms where you're not moving furniture.

This ain't rocket science.

 

[KevinD]

I have a pretty easy formula that has worked well for 30 years.

I measure the actual size and deduct 10 s.f. on average for every piece of furniture I don't move with the exception of a sofa may get 20 deducted and beds may get 20-40 deducted depending on size.

 

[Loren Egland]

A couple ways of thinking.

A lower square foot price sounds good to the customer, but if you charge for the entire room but only clean 75% of the carpet, make sure you tell them that is what you are doing.

It also sounds good to the customer to tell them you don't charge for the whole room, only the areas to be cleaned. You will likely charge more per square foot.

The easiest way I have found to measure is find the entire carpeted square footage, then just measure the furniture you won't be cleaning under. You can almost do it by sight. Full size bed 7x5=35 sq.ft., 2x5 dresser=10 sq.ft. So just subtract 45 sq.ft. from a 10x12 room (120') and you are cleaning 75'. Not all that time consuming, and you will not have people arguing with the full room sq ft pricing method that charges them for uncleaned space.

 

[lance]

Marty, do you have an inner christian?

If so, do you ever let it out to play?

 

[davegillfishing]

we charge by the sqft of actual areas cleaned and market heavily to that..
when asked why we dont do room pricing we ask the customer if they enjoy
paying for something that is not being cleaned..it makes us look more honest
and we are not afraid to market it that way..it makes people ask them self
why am i paying for something that is not getting done and dealing with someone that
is charging me for something that they are not doing??
just the way we do business

to me it is like paying someone to paint your house and you see them measure
length x width and you see the total..first question i am going to ask is
did you take the sqft off for the huge amount of windows i have if not why
should i pay you to do something you are not doing??

 

[hogjowl]

Yes, I have an inner Christian. It comes out often, but I sometimes have to put my hand over his mouth. He'll talk me into a corner if I don't.

 

[Bill Soukoreff]

I started by the sq/ft but now just price per job with no breakdown. Only the final pice appears on invoice. Saves me over an hour a day, I love it and my customers love it.

I agree with Marty, who cares what anybody else does. Just do what works for you.

 

[Demien]

If your customers are worried about if you charge wall to wall or for cleanable space your not doing a good job of selling the value of what you provide.
What are your prices based on ??? You might charge by the square foot but what your really selling is time!! A heavily soiled carpet warrants an additional charge not because your cleaning more square footage but because your taking the additional time to clean it correctly.

In a furnished home you work around lets say 300 square feet of furniture distributed through out the house. That 300 feet might take you an additional 20-30 minutes to clean around. The additional time is free???
I'll bet if you charge for cleanable space you also give a discount for empties as well!!

One of my pet peeves!!
Demien