What is everybody charging for a hotel room furniture cleaning?

[Bryce C]

Are those people aware that you are using portable equipment?

I also find that cleaners who give advice measure production times and dollars per hour with the same accuracy that fishermen use when relaying the size of "the one that got away"

Work on efficiency, especially filling and emptying your portables, furniture moving, etc.

Time killers are all those things that cause you to put the cleaning tool down, as well as set up and tear down issues.

I imagine folks here are aware of our setup as I've posted about it so much, I only talk to people on MB.

Great tips and reality checks Jim. As usual. We're working on it. I must really suck because in res, including setup and breakdown we average 300 sf/hour. In commercial it is 400 sf/hour

 

[BIG WOOD]

You know who's really a hack....







All these goobers with truckmounts in our area that do sincerely crappy work. Our new customers are consistently blown away by how better our results are then theirs. Blows my mind too. Not that we do good cleanings, but that these other way better equipped guys do such terrible cleanings. Whats up with that? How do they sleep at night?

keep your eyes open for a flunky carpet cleaner who goes bankrupt and you might find a sweet deal on a newer unit that the idiot over paid on

 

[Bryce C]

keep your eyes open for a flunky carpet cleaner who goes bankrupt and you might find a sweet deal on a newer unit that the idiot over paid on

I certainly will.

Been wondering if slapping a quality used tm in a trailer might be the ticket for us to up our game with the lowest investment possible for now. I haven't even researched it yet, but just a thought. The van/tm combo is just too much right now if its good equipment. I don't mind pulling a trailer. And I dig the storage space.

 

[Cleanworks]

An inline sprayer is next on the list for us. Pump sprayers are quite slow and frustrating. Do you scrub with a crb or some other agitation machine on all carpets? We do. Definitely helps get great results and needing less water and chems, and it makes up for other aspects of our system that are lacking at the moment. We also always use a 15' vac hose. Seems like I can't afford to lose any vac, otherwise I'm sure a 25' hose would speed things up too...

Great tips again man! Much appreciated!!

I only scrub when it's needed. Light to moderate soil doesn't need scrubbing. Use a good prespray and some type of rinse agent in the tank.

 

[Cleanworks]

I certainly will.

Been wondering if slapping a quality used tm in a trailer might be the ticket for us to up our game with the lowest investment possible for now. I haven't even researched it yet, but just a thought. The van/tm combo is just too much right now if its good equipment. I don't mind pulling a trailer. And I dig the storage space.

If you're in a small town or rural area, that's not a bad idea. Sucks in the city.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Inline sprayers spray quicker and more efficiently than pump up or battery sprayers.

With a one man crew.
Otherwise, I'd beat someone's face in if they stopped the wand to pre-spray

$5bills
worth it's weight in gold
put an 06 jet in the long wand and you'll put out just over a gpm

..L.T.A.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

It is true, inline or hydra force sprayer is a time killer, even with the PEX with pressure release. The 15 ft vacuum hose is another killer. Ditch that thing for at least a 30. Your distributor should sell it by the foot. 15 footer is for upholstery cleaning. 2 jobs per day is not a bad day with a porty.

 

[Dolly Llama]

seriously, Bryce
whenever a two man crew, it's anathema to stop the wand to pre-spray.

We ran 2 man crews most of the time.
a well choreographed team will gain 50-70% in efficiency time in/time out per job in res


..L.T.A.

 

[hogjowl]

Keep comparing yourself with everyone else.
Your on your way to Matthood.

 

[hogjowl]

seriously, Bryce
whenever a two man crew, it's anathema to stop the wand to pre-spray.

We ran 2 man crews most of the time.
a well choreographed team will gain 50-70% in efficiency time in/time out per job in res


..L.T.A.

 

[Cleanworks]

With a one man crew.
Otherwise, I'd beat someone's face in if they stopped the wand to pre-spray

$5bills
worth it's weight in gold
put an 06 jet in the long wand and you'll put out just over a gpm


View attachment 127432

..L.T.A.

I have one. Use it for upholstery. Wouldn't use it on place of an inline sprayer. So easy to disconnect and switch from wand to sprayer. Make sure you have a shut off valve on your pressure hose.

 

[Dolly Llama]

I have one. Use it for upholstery. Wouldn't use it on place of an inline sprayer. So easy to disconnect and switch from wand to sprayer. Make sure you have a shut off valve on your pressure hose.

you work alone

..L.T.A.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

My crew, 20 y/o, 17y/o, and a 10y/o. The 10 year old replaced the last year’s 61 y/o and I’m getting better production out him, no kidding

 

[Bryce C]

It is true, inline or hydra force sprayer is a time killer, even with the PEX with pressure release. The 15 ft vacuum hose is another killer. Ditch that thing for at least a 30. Your distributor should sell it by the foot. 15 footer is for upholstery cleaning. 2 jobs per day is not a bad day with a porty.

With a 30 ft hose I imagine I'll have to do even more dry passes or get even more diligent with my use of air movers. But per your recommendation, especially since you know our machine intimately, I'll do it. I have a 25 ft already I'll start with that.

With a one man crew.
Otherwise, I'd beat someone's face in if they stopped the wand to pre-spray

$5bills
worth it's weight in gold
put an 06 jet in the long wand and you'll put out just over a gpm


View attachment 127432

..L.T.A.

I think we may go with this Multi-Sprayer. Seems solid and not having to disconnect our solution line to run an inline sprayer sounds very helpful. Easily swapping out jugs for different pre-sprays is great. We occasionally find ourselves in environments with very limited circuits, shutting down the extractor as to not trip a circuit defeats the purpose. Do you think the battery operated model would be helpful if we keep it charged? Not sure if the batteries can be easily swapped out or if they are built in, having 2 fully charged each day would be great. I looked it up a bit and didn't see much about that. In larger commercial spaces the battery might get crushed quickly. But additional cords running all over the place might drive my wife nuts, she doesn't like cords. But life is tough, if that will be better she'll learn to cope. I believe in her.

 

[Bryce C]

Keep comparing yourself with everyone else.
Your on your way to Matthood.

Professionally I only compare myself to those I admire, those I loathe, and those I have much in common with. So hardly anyone.

 

[Dolly Llama]

Do you think the battery operated model would be helpful if we keep it charged?

owned/used both.

The battery one is heavier and battery will eventually need replaced.
I think we got a couple/three years of daily use before battery life deteriorated enough to need replaced

battery quick change...I wouldn't call it "easy" to replace battery in the field (nothing like a power tool battery) but not impossible
Plug it in to charger whenever it goes back in the van and leave on the charger "all the time" when not in use (battery will last years longer )

You should have an inline too, though.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with them.
They've never been consistent enough for me with powders
Too, we ran a mega heat TM , the draw gets lower as the temp rises and at 200 at the tool, they don't draw at all.


..L.T.A.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Your 25 will absolutely do fine. It’s built for that and 5 more feet does not hinder it at all. Press on! I put 35 on mine for classrooms. But it’s cgd, so no problem at all. #portyhack at times!

 

[Cleanworks]

you work alone

..L.T.A.

Yes

 

[Dolly Llama]

Do you think the battery operated model would be helpful if we keep it charged?

I don't recall how many gallons per charge we got.
Pretty sure more than 20 gal

..L.T.A.

 

[Bryce C]

I don't recall how many gallons per charge we got.
Pretty sure more than 20 gal

..L.T.A.

Dang. That'll get me through a day. I think the battery operated Multi-Sprayer is going to be the ticket for us right now. One step at a time. Big thanks.

 

[Bryce C]

You should have an inline too, though.

Yea I'll probably get one of those next. For now I'll use our pump sprayers as a backup once I get the Multi-Sprayer

 

[Bryce C]

Your 25 will absolutely do fine. It’s built for that and 5 more feet does not hinder it at all. Press on! I put 35 on mine for classrooms. But it’s cgd, so no problem at all. #portyhack at times!

Interesting what you say about cgd. With our portable I find I get worse suction and wetter carpet when doing cgd. I think it's because the vacuum loss out of the round of the glide on the tight/flat commercial carpet. I've slowed down a bunch and did a ton of extra dry passes several times to test it out and the fibers always feel wetter than any residential pile carpet that seems to wrap around the glide and get better suction.

I use air movers and try to think about what I'm doing so it always ends up fine, at least so far.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Lord have mercy! I have a AW29 with a non GG glide on it that is old as the hills, and it sucks like crazy. I lose no suc at 35’. Zero

 

[Bryce C]

Lord have mercy! I have a AW29 with a non GG glide on it that is old as the hills, and it sucks like crazy. I lose no suc at 35’. Zero

Maybe it's just that I don't have a frame of reference aside from my own. At all...

 

[Cleanworks]

That's o

Interesting what you say about cgd. With our portable I find I get worse suction and wetter carpet when doing cgd. I think it's because the vacuum loss out of the round of the glide on the tight/flat commercial carpet. I've slowed down a bunch and did a ton of extra dry passes several times to test it out and the fibers always feel wetter than any residential pile carpet that seems to wrap around the glide and get better suction.

I use air movers and try to think about what I'm doing so it always ends up fine, at least so far.

ne reason encap works better on cgd in most instances.

 

[Bryce C]

That's o

ne reason encap works better on cgd in most instances.

Tonight was a challenging job with cgd. Another factory office except greasier with much more foot traffic from the factory. And neglected for a year or two longer than the last place like it. Power scrubbing with a 175 would have helped us get better results. Less than a few weeks now can't wait to upgrade.

Hot water wasn't working at the facility either. Had to do something. Ran to the auto parts store and grabbed some purple power degreaser to spike our pre-spray. That stuff is serious, it helped a lot.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

That stuff is serious, it helped a lot

For a week, maybe.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

For that kind of work, as Jeff said, Ultrapac Extreme and a 175, not a crb, is your best bet. Then extract. Is your PEX not heating either?

 

[Bryce C]

For a week, maybe.

Why is that, does that stuff leave tacky residues?

For that kind of work, as Jeff said, Ultrapac Extreme and a 175, not a crb, is your best bet. Then extract. Is your PEX not heating either?

I may have to order some Ultrapac Extreme. 175 is coming, just another week and I'll be down in PA at the Fabric Pro Workshop and visiting Larry.

Nah the PEX 500 heater works fine. Electric inline heaters are inferior though, especially when you start with cold tap water...

 

[Kenny Hayes]

We must have different models of the PEX. The 2 heat on mine cooks once get gets going. And it don’t take long to get going.