Rug cleaning price sticker shock.

[XTREME1]

There were two times that I upcharged for the cleaning of rugs 1 was an armenian rug that I would guess was in the range of $35,000 and I pulled a rider on it and the other was an estate rug from a holocaust victim probably worth in the $50,000 range and I pulled a rider on that also.

I knew when I bid the jobs just by seeing the rugs that I needed additional protection. My policy only covers me so much with the picking up, cleaning and dropping rugs. My policy is a 3 mill 6 mill policy but it is for outside work.

 

[The Great Oz]

My rug post card hit today.

Got a few calls.

Two were from old ladies who never had theirs cleaned.

A 12 by 15's (wool, fringe and urine combo) cost of $960 got her heart palpitating pretty bad.

How do you rug snobs gently break the news to cleaning first timers that it aint gonna be .35 a foot with free pick up and delivery?


Can we hear your speech?

Tossing out pricing without more information is a good way to lose that contact. I'm sure you realize that the call is what you were trying to generate with the card. That call is an opportunity to have a conversation, and in that conversation you qualify what you can without seeing the rug.

Tell me about your rug. (This information will often be incorrect, but it gives you an opportunity to show you care.) You can ask questions such as; what type of rug, how long have you had it, do you remember where you found it... If they aren't sure the rug is worth cleaning, tell them you'd like to take a look at it anyway. Let them know that if the rug is too far gone to restore, you'll let them know that. You aren't interested in just taking their money, you want them to be happy with the service you provide.

You can let the customer know that you have a price range that will vary depending on what may be required. You can make a guess over the phone, but can give an exact price once you have had a chance to see the rug. To do this and not look like a crook, you MUST have a printed price list detailing every service you provide - one that you can show to a customer.

As you continue with your conversation, the customer should begin to pre-like your company, agree to set up a day to give them an exact price, and go with the expectation of bringing the rug in.


Given the above scenario, I'd want to know more besides being wool with fringe. A hand-knotted Oriental? ($3.00 psf) An old Chinese hand-tufted? ($2.50 psf) A Karastan domestic with acrylic fringe? ($1.60 psf) No guarantee spot deodorizing adds .35psf. No extra charge for fringe, in our case it gets included in the psf price. So, if the customer's size is correct, a price range of under $300 to over $500, not including anything needed beyond normal cleaning. Cash and carry and wholesale to the trade discounts as well.

Guaranteed odor removal? $8.50 psf including cleaning. As a 12x15 would cost over $1,500 for this service, so the rug had better be worth it to the customer.

 

[sweendogg]

:shock: We are not worthy.... oh wait yeah.. what he said! ^^

 

[-JB-]

Wow, great advice Oz, as usual.

 

[B&BGaryC]

Does a car wash charge more for a lincoln that a chevy? No. If you are not confidant in cleaning 40k rugs you shouldn't clean them, but the customer imo should not pay more unless there are inherant differnces in what is done to warrant the premium, within reason. Also who is to judge the 40k rug is 40k? If it is an appraisal then that is likely a retail value and the rug may have actually been purchased for 20-30k, which is all an insurance company would really pay any way.

I think that's a poor analogy Ken. No matter how much knowledge or skill I have, I am never going to take cleaning a 40 thousand dollar rug lightly. I am confident that I know what I am doing when it comes to cleaning rugs, I know what to test for, and I know when to reject cleaning a rug if I deem it to be risky. I do treat a more expensive rug differently. Generally they have bigger issues with bleeding, dye migration, shrinking, etc. I really wish I had a wash pit, but our shop isn't big enough. I don't think it's worth taking on the liability of cleaning a rug like that unless you are getting 10% of the value. It's the Doug Heiferman rule and I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I have never once damaged a rug or a piece of upholstery but I have been taught that it is very easy to do and you must take precautions. I am always cautious when cleaning rugs and upholstery, and as the value of the piece goes up, the precautions I take increase because as a general rule, the more expensive something is, the harder it is to care for.

 

[Desk Jockey]

The Great Oz always proves why he is THE GREAT OZ!

Great post Bryan!

 

[daniel@procarpet]

I agree with Mikey on this one. A rug that is 180 square feet and is soaked with urine would take a long time to clean and guarantee complete odor removal. The rug may even need repeated cleanings. As far as the price. Removing urine from a delicate rug is no different than removing color migration. Atleast you can explain that to the customer. It takes specialized equipment and skill that only a few cleaners posess. I would also point out that urine often times causes rugs to bleed more easily. This poses a difficult cleaning challenge. An 8x10 rug is large but only 80 square feet. So if the rug is really 180 square feet, 900 dollars is a fair price to do a professional job. I would explain that the rug is twice the size of the rug you normally clean, hence the higher cost. I would also shoot for the higher price, and if the customer declined
i would make sure they were educated on what could go wrong with the cleaning. If I did not hear back from them within a couple days, I would call them back to see if they had made up their mind. If they still thought the price was too high, I would offer them a cash discount of 15-20 percent. I wouldn't offer the discount at the first meeting. Who knows, after they thought about it, they might decide to let you do the cleaning when you called them back at the full price. Don't kid yourself. 700 plus dollars is good money for about 4 hours work.


For all those guys charging .50 cents to a dollar a foot, you have never really cleaned a rug properly. I don't have a wash pit, but I clean rugs very successfully and always guarantee complete odor removal no matter how bad the rug is, and I do not use any type of deoodrizer other than a sanitizer applied to the rug while drying.

 

[Mikey P]

I don't have a wash pit, but I clean rugs very successfully and always guarantee complete odor removal no matter how bad the rug is, and I do not use any type of deoodrizer other than a sanitizer applied to the rug while drying.

Well hells bells dude, lets hear how you pull that off then.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

1. soak rug thoroughly.
2. shampoo or scrub front and back
3. rinse rug with lots of water
4. This is the key. I let water flow over the rug and flush with a water-claw several times and then move to the next area. This process is a little time consuming.
5. Inclined cleaning surface.

Thats all there is to it.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

At one time I did have a cheap wash pit. Pvc pipe and a plastic tarp. All this did was make one big pool of urine even when I had a hose with clean water flowing in and out of the cleaning pit. My cleaning process has changed over the years and I feel I have perfected the cleaning process. All I am doing is shampooing and flushing the rug very thoroughly. Sometimes I rinse a rug for an hour or more. The key to removing all not just some of the urine damge is in the last extraction phase which is to rinse the rug and extract 1 square foot at a time with a claw and keep repeating this process until the water being extracted is clear with no urine. Keep repeating the same small area until all of the urine is extracted. Then move to the next area. After doing this to the entire rug (about 30-45 minutes for an 8x10 not including any scrubing) go over the entire rug with the claw again to extract remaing moisture on the front and back of the rug. If you do this procedure, there will be no urine in the rug hence no odor. Apply a sanitizer and dry the rug with fans.

To do this process I have a 150 minimum and charge around 3.00 a foot (not including protector) which is good for me. I have cleaned numerous rugs with this process and have always been able to remove the odor from a rug.

I may actually be gaining access to a real wash pit soon though. A guy I know has a store with a cooler that is not used. It has a drain in the middle of a concrete floor and the floor has a natural slope or depression so water will flow to the middle. I could easily install some racks and be good to go.