How often are you pulling out the 175 to pre-scrub ?

[bensurdi]

Let's say out of 10 jobs, how often do you pull out the brush and scrub the carpet?

 

[dealtimeman]

are you asking both residential and comm? on residential i only scrub when obviously needs it and on commercial i always pre scrubb - lately i have been post padding and custys like it.

 

[Dolly Llama]

maybe 70% of the time for com
Maybe 10% for empties
maybe 2% for res


..L.T.A.

 

[bensurdi]

Mikey what about you? It sounds like you pre-scrub a lot of your jobs, or do you just scrub the nasties?

Post padding- do you think it really makes a big difference doing that? Is it worth your time?

 

[Mikey P]

75% of the time easily.
Makes the whole job go faster.
Post padding really helps on commercial glue downs, greasy spoons, nasty polyesters and problematic wickers.







s'matter Ben, Rob and Tre can't answer real cleaning questions?


or does every answer come with a website sales pitch?

 

[Guest]

Residential 99% of time not needed; I use a EDIC Powermate which has a 2100rpm rotating brush scrubbing as I extract. How ever 100% of all empty, occupied, or otherwise apartments we service we prescrub and use EDIC PowerMate then do drying passes with glided wand.

Commercial we do double vacuuming, then prescrub, extract with glided wand and a kero inline heater; as of lately use dehumidifiers along with fans carpet is dry before we leave.

 

[hogjowl]

Might do it 1 in 500 jobs on residential and 1 in 100 commercial. Not that I don't think it does a better overall job, it's just that I severely disagree with Mike that it makes the whole job go faster. It actually adds time to the job, thus increasing my job costs to a point that is over that certain point that my customers will willingly pay for. The difference is not cosmetic, so I just leave it in the truck until I get that particular situation where it is acceptable.

 

[Mikey P]

Keep in mind that Marty owns a huge over priced and powered dual wanding truckmount and works by himself.



Of course it takes longer to pre scrub FOR HIM!


when you have a helper, like a old arthritic geezer like him should, it takes less time, you use less chems, less rinsing/cleaning and you dig out more crap.

 

[hogjowl]

True about working by myself, but not true about using the second person. That second person should be vacuuming ahead of the cleaner and moving furniture. When he's through vacuuming he should be blocking and prespraying. Prescrubbing still adds time to the job.

Except in BB land.

 

[Mikey P]

and 3 months ago you thought a GLS was the best way to prescrub...



You've never worked with an efficient two man team so how would you know?

 

[hogjowl]

I've seen pictures of your helper.

I think you may be getting a bit Jose Smith on us all of a sudden.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I almost never, but doesn't it make a difference what type of jobs you clean?

Our commercial work is more corporate type, offices and buildings. We don't do any apartments, restaurants, bars, liquor stores that would need the pre scrubbing.

As far a residential we clean don't do many nasty ones, not that we are too good to do them, but most of those people will use someone cheaper.

So we haven't pulled a rotary out in years, maybe decades for general carpet cleaning.

I'm sure if we cleaned dirtier carpet we would use something to pre-scrub, but I think we would use a Cimex due to the planetary action.

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

I used to prescrub 100% of jobs back in the 80's and 90's. Nowadays, forget about it!

Pre-scrubbing takes more time, leaves the carpet wetter, and frizzes the yarns.

If it positively needs scrubbed I use the RX-20. Less fiber distoration and much faster than a 175/hotwater extraction combo. In most cases it's still debatable wether or not the rx20 outperforms the wand.

However, I do run the Blueline Thermalwave 5m with the #5 blower and sustained heat of 200 degrees (dual wand mode, 525 cfm @13hg) and a Greenhorn wand.

I know a lot of guys here swear by the 175. I just can't wrap my brain around it!

Also, if you want kick a$$ results you have to use kick a$$ pre-spray!!! The prespay has to be applied properly. You need to turn the black areas on the light carpet white with pre-spray. You know what i mean?

Anyone else usings Cobbs Powermaxx w/ his Powdered Brightner added as a booster besides me? Is it bad to the bone or what?

 

[Walt]

The best part about pre-scrubbing a job is not having to tell them that the grey in the traffic areas is wear. This is especially true on white carpet that isn't that dirty when you start, but is difficult to take to the next level. I think it's a must for a "green" company. Better to add agitation than stronger chems.

However, if you work alone most of the time or are an a tighter time restraint I think the GLS is a better option. For one you are more likely to use it because it weighs 1/3 of a rotary. Additionally, you will be able to dig out more dog fur and you are less likely to damage the carpet fiber.

Post padding on commercial is great. I've never been able to figure out the advantage on residential. I've post padded dozens of carpets with no difference in appearance and very very little picked up on the pad.

 

[rotovacguy]

I do on every job, but I'm a POG. I suppose if I had the heat, flow and suction of a TM, it would be used a whole lot less.




Some jobs don't really need it, even with a porty, but I do just for piece of mind.

 

[dealtimeman]

ben when i post pad comm it is a reassurance that the end product is going to be the best i could do and it doe make it more uniform i think.

post padding has doubled my comm cleaning through refferals.


p.s. also like it when the custy says "the other companies never looked like that - it looks excellent!"
try it you will see.

 

[bensurdi]

this may sound dumb but what is a GLS?

I am doing a 6K SF church tomorrow, will be encaping the whole place for the first time!

Hey Walt call me, 206-353-4155. Have a few jobs for you.

Cobbs stuff is pretty good stuff , i agree

 

[Mikey P]

a GLS (or Whittiker brand) is just one make and model of a CRB type machine.

Counter Rotating Brush.

See Greenie's $99 Ebay auction thread to see another.

 

[dealtimeman]

mikey could you encap with one of those gls?

 

[Mikey P]

Sure, that's what their all about really.


Kinda slow though due to their low weight.

Thats how I got suckered into a GLS.


I only use it for Travertine jobs now.

 

[Walt]

this may sound dumb but what is a GLS?

I am doing a 6K SF church tomorrow, will be encaping the whole place for the first time!

Hey Walt call me, 206-353-4155. Have a few jobs for you.

Cobbs stuff is pretty good stuff , i agree

Thanks for the offer. I don't want to seem ungrateful but I'm about 2.5-3 weeks out solid as it is now. Some of my current customers are a little irritated that they have to wait so long. So I'll take a pass for now. You might contact Steve Fraiser on this board. He can handle a higher work flow than I can.

 

[SDSinc]

Has anyone ever considerd using a Prochem Procaps (type) machine with a tank to put down pre-spray and agitate at the same time. I know the pre-spray would be lacking heat by not laying it down with the hydro-force but I think it would be fast and save a step.????

 

[sweendogg]

Has anyone ever considerd using a Prochem Procaps (type) machine with a tank to put down pre-spray and agitate at the same time. I know the pre-spray would be lacking heat by not laying it down with the hydro-force but I think it would be fast and save a step.????

Some guys here do that with the procaps but because they have had so many issues with the reliablilty of the procaps machines, its not very common. However, there are quite a few guys on board here who lay down their prespray using a cimex with the gravity feed right into each pad driver to lay down their solution. Others will use a shampoo tank on a 175, And yet there are still plenty of those who will simply prespray ahead and then agitate afterwords.

 

[Guest]

Here is a job we did today; Shampoo'ed first presprayed after; Turned out great!!!

Before

After

Before

After

 

[duckster]

I do whatever they pay for. I don't give anything away.

 

[Mountain View Carpet Care]

Here is a job we did today; Shampoo'ed first presprayed after; Turned out great!!!

Before

After

Before

After

Your going to play backgamon in that?

 

[Al]

We pre-srub almost every job but not alway's with a 175.

We post pad when ever it may be needed.



As a matter of fact we do a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff!




From booties to grooming :shock:

We even use Air Paths :shock: 2 on most jobs! :roll:




8)