Starting a Carpet Cleaning Biz / No Experience / What Would You Do?

[Matt H]

Hello All,

I'm looking for any suggestions/advice in regards to starting a residential carpet cleaning business with no experience. My wife and I have been self employed and small business owners for a while so I think our biggest questions have to do with the actual cleaning process and gaining experience doing it. I would love to hear what type/brand of equipment many of you would use if you had to start from square one today. Truck mount or portable? Hot water extraction? Cleaning solutions? Thanks!!!

 

[BIG WOOD]

Do the opposite of what I did:

Pulled a trailer with an old truck when I first started.

Quit my part time job too early after I started.

Had credit card debt when I started.

Focused on too many avenues of service (carpet, windows, pressure washing, office cleaning, air ducts), instead of focusing on one avenue to be the best in the market (carpet, upholstery, tile and grout) which led to a very slow growth and being only OK at my job instead of the best.

 

[FredC]

IICRC Carpet Cleaning (CCT) - Barker-Hammer

Join instructor Rick Ruch October 21 & 22, 2019 to become IICRC certified in Carpet Cleaning. Contac 952-926-7117 to register today.

www.barker-hammer.com

find somebody to ride along with....watch some Saiger videos.....some encap vids (too many of these rots your brain though)

unless you plan on doing limited access/highrise there is little point in starting with a portable unless you have to....but maybe go rent a portable from sunbelt or similar and clean a couple rooms in your house


equipment/method/chem discussion is really pointless right now.............


Is your "small business owners for a while " a service biz? How do you plan on getting customers because that is more important than any of the other stuff..........and is your plan going to be enough to support the equipment everyone tells you to buy?

 

[hogjowl]

What you really need to know is who the distributor is in your area
And start from there

 

[Dolly Llama]

starting a residential carpet cleaning business

full time or part time ??

how much do have to invest

..L.T.A.

 

[Cleanworks]

You want to narrow it down a little. Do you want to do mainly residential houses? Or strictly commercial? A little of both? Are the jobs you want to do accessible with a truck mount? Will you also need a portable? Cimex or orbital?

 

[Nomad74]

I got nothing to say. Good lick

 

[Matt H]

full time or part time ??

how much do have to invest

..L.T.A.

This would be a part time side business to start, with the flexibility of becoming more full time based on the amount of business I could generate. I'm in a smaller, rural town so this is no big city population and I'll be willing to travel about 45 min from where I'm based. This would put me in touch with a number of other cities. With that being said, I don't want to invest a low $ and end up having cheaper or used equipment that doesn't allow me to do the job efficiently. I also don't want to invest a higher $ and feel like I'm behind the eight ball right from the start.

 

[Matt H]

You want to narrow it down a little. Do you want to do mainly residential houses? Or strictly commercial? A little of both? Are the jobs you want to do accessible with a truck mount? Will you also need a portable? Cimex or orbital?

Mainly residential houses to start. I honestly have no idea what method I should use but leaning towards hot water extraction. This is literally day 3 of "guy who knows nothing about cleaning carpet wants to start a carpet cleaning business."

 

[Matt H]

You want to narrow it down a little. Do you want to do mainly residential houses? Or strictly commercial? A little of both? Are the jobs you want to do accessible with a truck mount? Will you also need a portable? Cimex or orbital?

Mainly residential houses to start. I honestly have no idea what method I should use but leaning towards hot water extraction. This is literally day 3 of "guy who knows nothing about cleaning carpet wants to start a carpet cleaning business."

 

[Pioneer Floorcare]

Start with a ride-a-long
Then identify how you are going to get the phone to ring.
There is nothing wrong with good used equipment.
Take Jon-Don’s SFS class ASAP!

 

[Pioneer Floorcare]

...

 

[FredC]

@dealtimeman what equipment do you most like to find on craigslist?

 

[Cleanworks]

Just to give you an example of a typical day, first job with a portable, had to sit in traffic for 1 hour and 15 minutes. $225. Then went for lunch. 2nd job, truck mount $250. Towards the end of the job I felt I was losing vacuum. Go out to the truck and I have an exhaust leak blowing hot on the hose connecting the blower to the waste tank. Do an emergency repair and complete the job. 3rd job is a small one cleaning up after a flood. $400.00. go home have supper. Then go to the shop and replace the 2.5 inch hose from the blower to the waste tank. Discover a leak in my fresh water hose, repair that. Tomorrow I will pick up some new supply hose. Still haven't done my paper work and also had to install a new battery in my stepsons car and put his license plates on for him. Some days, the work never ends. I still have rugs to roll up and more rugs to clean in the shop. There's a ton of little things I haven't mentioned. Tomorrow, I get to do it all over again. Still want to be a carpet cleaner?

 

[FredC]

Were you trying to make $875 a day and a couple small issues sound bad?

 

[Cleanworks]

Were you trying to make $875 a day and a couple small issues sound bad?

No just saying I worked until 9pm am still not done. Just done for today. I always think I will catch up the next day but the next day will have its own set of problems. My wife asks why are you going to the shop? Because the carpet fairies won't fix my machine for me. I like what I do but their are probably easier businesses out there.

 

[Hack Attack]

as someone mentioned earlier do a ride along with a reputable company outside your service area

you'll learn a bit as well as getting a realistic insight into the everyday job

 

[Matt H]

Thanks everyone for the advice! Will definitely be setting up a ride along!

 

[J Scott W]

I always tell folks with questions about what equipment to buy, to clearly know what job you want to do before you get the tools to do it. Mostly residential houses. If you can park fairly close to the homes then 150' to 200' should reach almost anywhere you want to clean. An entry level truckmount from any of the major manufacturers will accomplish that.

If you want to add tile & Grout and other hard surface cleaning, you will need a pump that can provide 1200 or more PSI and at least 2.2 gallons per minute. That would require one step up for most truckmount brands.

A Brush Pro CRB can help clean areas if you can't reach with standard hose run such as a larger multi-story home or building. Also helpful on providing agitation for heavily soiled areas on carpet or tile & grout.

Barker- Hammer in Edina and Little Canada is a great place to see and demo carpet cleaning equipment and also learn all the diversifications carpet cleaners may get involved with. Do as Matt stated and get good at a few things before you try to learn everything.