Just a bit of today's weather in Northern MN

[Mark Saiger]

Already been a long day! We have about a 3 day snowstorm setting in on us. Ran around all day in this mess. Only one postponed job, but then inherited another in it's place. Been out plowing and will have to be up early again to plow out the drive to get the vans out. We have a packed week ahead of us as well and a very large job is an hour North on one of the worst roads ever on Wednesday. That job is about 10,000 square feet of carpet and some tile and grout to clean. Worth the drive even if I have to plow snow up to the bumpers the entire way!

Already about 8 inches or more on the ground today, more on the way and who know how much it will end up totaling. We were only suppose to get a couple inches today. Messy, drag hoses through it all day, can't see anything and rarely can find the road.

The view traveling from one job today....and this was after the plow trucks had made a path on this 4 lane.



Me and the girls out plowing with one of the Saiger's Steam Clean trucks (Baya Boo the Schnoodle and Lola the Mini Schnauzer) They love to go plowing!







Time to dry out some gloves and shoes for tomorrow!

Mark Saiger

 

[Mark Saiger]

One of the local maps predicting our snow totals. I am right dead center in the middle of it. Go figure....

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...1278836166.226615.214208256166&type=1&theater

Mark Saiger

 

[Desk Jockey]

Its 48 out right now. Wish it would stay that way but we get a slight chance of snow later in the week with a cold blast of single digit temps too.

 

[dealtimeman]

Yeah pretty crazy here. 68 yesterday 77 tomorrow 68 Wednesday then all goes to the crapper with highs in 30s maybe low 40s then OCD and snow heading into the weekend.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Nothing like a morning of shoveling and pushing snow early in the morning in Northern MN so you can get the vans out to get to work! The puppies decided to sleep in though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpkz0MfR_k4

I hear we have more snow on the way, so I am making more room in the yard for it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDOlGggOqnE

Mark Saiger
www.saigers.com

 

[Desk Jockey]

Oh man I feel for you. That sucks!

I wish I had your truck and plow for my drive. It's purty blue too!

I need to get a plow on my 4-wheeler & I better get my snow blower checked out.

 

[Russ T.]

53 degrees here, just a few hours south of Mark. Getting cold again this week with single digit lows. This has been a really good year but our slow time is almost here. Be safe Mark.


The Clean Machine

 

[GCCLee]

I think he likes the snow guys : )

You are way to excited about all that, lol
Snow Snow Snow Fev Fev Fev va va va

 

[Mikey P]

I think you may want to go decaf on the 7th cup there Mark


Is the flashing light a law?

 

[Jim Martin]

I think I may have to turn off my AC and switch over to the heater this week end....we have a cold spell coming in....

 

[Doug Cox]

I'm to the point of just hating working in the snow. This is the main reason I will get out of this business. I can work in bitter cold, but just detest snow.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Oh man I feel for you. That sucks!

I wish I had your truck and plow for my drive. It's purty blue too!

I need to get a plow on my 4-wheeler & I better get my snow blower checked out.

I have a plow on my pretty Blue Polaris 4 wheeler too....but the truck is much more comfortable!

 

[Mark Saiger]

I think you may want to go decaf on the 7th cup there Mark


Is the flashing light a law?

Flashing light is a law....8 cups of High octane coffee a must...

7 pm and just got in, took shower, something to eat and now a couple beers and Mikeysboard, getting primed to do it all over again in the early morning with new snow storm all day and do 10,000 square feet of carpet WAY up north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcell,_Minnesota

Gonna be a fun filled day especially if the trek is to and from in the amount of snow they are forcasting!

Mark Saiger

 

[Mark Saiger]

I'm to the point of just hating working in the snow. This is the main reason I will get out of this business. I can work in bitter cold, but just detest snow.

I'm with you on this Doug!

Mark Saiger

 

[floorguy]

I'm to the point of just hating working in the snow. This is the main reason I will get out of this business. I can work in bitter cold, but just detest snow.

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Flashing light is a law....8 cups of High octane coffee a must...

7 pm and just got in, took shower, something to eat and now a couple beers and Mikeysboard, getting primed to do it all over again in the early morning with new snow storm all day and do 10,000 square feet of carpet WAY up north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcell,_Minnesota

Gonna be a fun filled day especially if the trek is to and from in the amount of snow they are forcasting!

Mark Saiger

I dont mind the snow...though it sucks to get it in the hose....

I LOVED plowing when i did it from 17-25....Did it for a neighbor who had 3 trucks...

then it went weird for a while with not much snow sticking.....it would snow, but always melted fast....or it would be way cold.....then the front would warm it up that it rained instead of snowed....then went cold again....

hate the bitter cold though...

to bad i still have a few jobs during DEC...id come up there just to plow....

 

[Brian H]

We had a bad snow storm several years ago during the first week in December. No one was booking and jobs cancelled. The best estimate was that we lost $100,000 in volume because of that storm. By the time things got cleaned up and the side roads and subdivisions roads were passable, it was Christmas.

After Christmas and until the weather breaks, it's very slow here. If we get snow after Christmas, we can always make it up later that month or the next since there really isn't an "event" that people get cleaned up for until Easter.

 

[amygeorge]

I used to live in Steamboat Springs, CO. I miss the place, but not the snow. It was a tough place to make a living.

We got ready today for the bad weather. 1\4 to 1\2 inch of ice expected. Hoping for a some busted pipe calls. Out here, we don’t have the resources to salt the roads or bridges, so most stuff comes to a halt.

Stay warm!

 

[Mark Saiger]

Today was a LONG DAY! Just got done cleaning about 10,000 square feet of carpet today way up North. Roads were not plowed in a lot of places and over a foot of snow on them. Just got in at about 8:30 pm. Had to put in 3 hours of plowing also to get all the snow in control and our drives cleaned out. More snow coming down, so up early tomorrow to plow again, and we also have a full day of carpet cleaning. Possible -20 below zero on Friday and we are also booked pretty hard. We had to pull over a number of times to try and get the snow off the wiper blades. Could only do about 28 miles per hour at best. Took forever to make what is normally an hour trip.





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Mark Saiger

www.saigers.com

 

[hogjowl]

Man, you sure do talk funny.

 

[floorguy]

DAYUM....

-20....

screw that my stuff would be all tucked in

 

[Mark Saiger]

Man, you sure do talk funny.

It goes with my looks...LOL

 

[Mark Saiger]

Was asked about the price of yesterdays jobs. We were .36 cents per square foot which is our normal rate. This was part of a community center run by a non profit, so we did give them a 10% off of all work and the church right next door, we did give a 20% off which is pretty common for these types of organizations. We did not charge mileage which was about a 45 minute drive away (yesterday was a bit longer doing 32 mph)

Was a good job and we end up doing a lot of jobs like this were price per square foot is not always the factor. They do have a budget and we try to make sure we can get into that budget if needed.

We are very lucky and sometimes even end up being the higher priced company but can offer a little better service and confidence that we will do a good job and take care of their needs. I have found it is just all in asking the right questions to find out their concerns and needs and making sure we fulfill them. That has usually got us the job. I will tell them if there is another quote they are looking at that is below us, I will take a look and see how it compares. I had one that was half price of us once and told them "I couldn't even touch it"....We still ended up doing the job because they wanted us and I even offered them a bit of a discount. When we were done, they gave us our original full price quote. Crazy luck!

So yesterday was a very good day of cleaning despite the weather!

 

[jwfoulk12]

The thing I hate worst about the snow is just driving in it. I don't know about you guys but my 3500 loaded down with water and equipment turns into a big sled in that type of weather. I try to reschedule whenever I can. Thankfully we don't get to many big snow storms here in central PA anymore.

 

[rwcarpet]

And of course your weather heads to NE Ohio!

 

[Mark Saiger]

Was at on clients house yesterday and it was -30 below (f) on the thermometer. There has been a lot of snow for the past week, just non stop shoveling and plowing. Now non stop cold! Says -18 degrees (f) on the phone this morning, but feels colder!

Not a lot of easy access to peoples places the past couple days as everyone tries to get plowed out. Only had one postponed job that was due to them getting called into work, and that spot got filled with 2 other emergency clean ups. Weather has just kicked the crap out of us. Just sore and beat today.

Got so cold yesterday, my fuel oil to my shop furnace froze up. First time ever. I think delivery guy might have put in wrong blend. Got it thawed out with some anti gel and the truck mount spraying and heating the tank, connectors and line going into the shop. Seems to be working yet this morning. When I built my shop, I put in 8 foot electric baseboard heaters through out entire shop as back ups....and they worked! I can also use a generator to run everything if we loose power ever.

A look at one job we were driving to get to a house on a peninsula with a lake on each side of the road and on each side of their home. Couldn't take a pic driving through the swamp. Just enough room to get the Chevy 3500's through though. Running boards were plowing snow off to the sides it was that narrow!





Mark Saiger

 

[Desk Jockey]

That's crazy weather.

It's 3-degrees here this morning, I can't imagine it being as cold as you guys get it. That's just awful....I'm amazed how you do so much in that weather.

 

[Russ T.]

I worked for 3 years at almost 10K feet above sea level (Summit County, CO) and it was really a challenge sometimes. They can get 300 inches of snow in the valleys where most of the people live. Even more snow up on the mountain pass roads where some of the biggest, nicest homes are. We used chains a lot. Mark, do you use chains? Are your vans 4 WD? Glad you guys are making it work!


The Clean Machine

 

[Mark Saiger]

I worked for 3 years at almost 10K feet above sea level (Summit County, CO) and it was really a challenge sometimes. They can get 300 inches of snow in the valleys where most of the people live. Even more snow up on the mountain pass roads where some of the biggest, nicest homes are. We used chains a lot. Mark, do you use chains? Are your vans 4 WD? Glad you guys are making it work!


The Clean Machine

No Chains but good off road type tires all year round. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Wrangler+SilentArmor

Just make sure anyone looking at these gets Load Range "E" rated tires to carry the types of loads we carry. They do make them in lighter weight series too. Actually pretty quite tire on the road as we do run them all year long. Never know when in mud you need them!

Haven't ever seen anyone use chains around here either. No 4 x 4 vans, just good old 2 wheel, rear wheel drive and some driving skills. But it's not like we don't get concerned about driving the vans around. You get one stuck....you are going to be stuck!

Mark

 

[Desk Jockey]

We have 1-4 expected tomorrow but at least its a Sunday and I can blow snow and run kids to work if I need to. One the twins has a Rav-4, so she has 4 wheel drive but no experience in snow. Depends on what we get in I let her try.

I'm planning on water calls tomorrow or Monday, it's going to warm up slightly and that's usually when they pop.

 

[floorguy]

Wouldnt happen....lol

in fact next week is VERY light...and i dont care...in fact if people call i will push it to the end of week, as it is suppose to get back to around 40