Why MOST CARPET CLEANERS suck at tile and grout.

[Mikey P]

Lets face it, cleaning tile, stone and grout is far more complicated than cleaning carpet.

With today's chems and big suck trucks it's pretty damn hard to ruin a carpet. Fixing a wick back or brown out is simple and cheap.


It's pretty easy to ruin a grouted floor though...

Do Multi's have the skill and time to fix blown out grout? Loose tiles? Spend a half day or more stripping topical seals that know one knew was there until the Turbo started blasting it off like a bad sun burn?


-Professional tile cleaners need to carry far more then an alkaline prespray, Turbo tool and a sealer applicator bottle.
Does the average purple, black, green or yellow truck have room for strippers, scrubbers, bonnets, airpaths, various color seals, three types of sealers, grout haze removers, razors, dental picks, Grout saws, a few popular colors of unmixed grout, splash guards, a 175, mops and buckets, Malgrit brushes, edge tools, counter top tools, polishing compounds/pads, knee pads/rollers and what not in an already crowded truck?

-Does your average Carpet Cleaning monkey have the ability to properly ID a Marble tile from a well formulated porcelain? Not until he most likely screws a few up.

-Do 5 job a day single Techs have the time to properly educate Mrs Pifteltons on how to care for her freshly cleaned floor? or will said floor look just as dirty in just a few mopings?

-How many Saltillo or clay tile floors can the company pay for before they put a 500 psi governor on the pressure regulators? Can you spell Spirograph?

-Can your average un-certified Carpet Tech be trusted with a cleaning agent wit a pH of 1 or 2 and a pump up sprayer?

-If you cant offer Colorsealing as an option don't call yourself a Professional Tile and Grout Cleaner. And trust me no ten dollar an hour chimp is ever going to apply color seal properly. Let alone be able to sell it.

-Mdf Base boards. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

-Take that lame Dane Gregory class and he'll have you tarping and masking the whole neighborhood. Do you trust a chimp to mask painted walls, wall paper and fine wood finishes?

-How many multi trucks have rotary floor machines in them? Ever try to clean up sealer haze with out one?




You may luck out and have one or two star employees on staff that may be willing to learn but the average Bonzo is going to hate it and the stars will most likely get burned out during the learning curve.



ScotchGUARD and lazy boys are and will always be the preferred up-sell of the American Carpet Cleaning Chimpanzee.

 

[daniel@procarpet]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck and tile and grout.

Well said. Now all you need to do is add this to your blog. Just one more reason people should call you.

 

[gary mackay]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

The economy sucks so bad now, i sold the color dye seal twice this month rather than install it to "do it yourselfers".

 

[rick imby]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

Good Techs will take on as much as you allow them to. You don't give them the incentive to take on much by calling them or thinking of them as Chimps.

Have you had issues getting and keeping good employees? hmm...

You get exactly what you deserve in employees. Humans are very good at getting subliminal messages.

I guarantee Ken Snow would never think about calling a tech a Chimp.....



Rick

*******
Guaranteed Couer d'Alene Carpet Cleaning ore Eugene Oregon Carpet Cleaning Carpet Cleaning

 

[Ken Snow]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

Oy vey

 

[John Spezia]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

Mikey, No way is cleanig a hard surface harder then cleaning carpet. Cleaning carpet uses way more chems & energy then anything.

My van has a couple of alkaline cleaners in it, Tile & Grout cleaner & a floor stripper. My van has one acid in it. My van has 1 neutral cleaner.

 

[RickL]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

I certainly agree with Mike. The average ceramic tile kitchen I agree shouldn't give many problems. But I have been called many times to help someone who had created a mess and had no idea what they were doing. I just did a large job where the Stanley Steamer employee
(guy on the truck) said they couldn't do the tile as it had problems I inspected it, did the job would of been a nice $4 or $500 job for the owner.
I've seen people try to clean Saltillo without a clue and remove part of the topical coating and not know how to do the rest. Techs not testing ofr topicals on grout and trying to colorseal over mop and glow or wax and it comes right off. I got a lot more but will let it go at that. Unless you color seal in mostv case you don't get the pop you do on a trashed carpet with relative ease.

 

[The Great Oz]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

The title could be amended to: Why most cleaners...

Like guys that take a leather cleaning class are never good at it without getting good at a certain amount of color repair, and guys that clean rugs can't just dip their toes in it. Tile cleaning isn't always just cleaning, and, most guys that buy into multiple diversifications rarely get very good at more than one or two.

 

[Mikey P]

Re: Why Multi Truckers suck at tile and grout.

Hagopian does not clean tile.


and Ozzy is correct.

 

[Ken Snow]

wtf are you talking about Mikey- we went from 0 to almost 100k in tile & grout cleaning in the last year and a half. I expect we will double that each of the next 2 years and be close to 1/2 mil by 2012.

 

[Mikey P]

I think you're lying.


Butlers can't even reach 700 psi.


and you'd be luck to fit a bucket of Wing Dings back there let alone all the crap you need to be a Professional Tile Cleaner.

 

[davegillfishing]

you must be joking or you are mis informed..i clean tile and grout on at least 60% of my jobs..butler does just fine.

 

[Ken Snow]

Mikey take ur meds, I think this *** stuff is really affecting you.

 

[Mikey P]

Ken do you let your employees use Acids?

Do you provide them with coating/finish strippers?

What sealers do you offer?

How do they dry the floor before sealing?

How is the sealer left overs cleaned off?

Will you let them clean Stone?

Out of the 40 some odd van on the rad how many are fully equipped to provide a proper service? (not just a Turbo/Spinner and some alkaline cleaner)

How much a sq ft for cleaning and how much for sealing?

Does the grout get pre scrubbed?

 

[Ken Snow]

Most of those questions I don't know the answers to readily but could find out from my division managers. I won't at this time since your whole purpose for this thread seems to be to knock people down or pump yourself up, I'm not sure which. Quit being a dickwad Mike

 

[tim]

California is obviously different from other parts of the country but for 99 percent of the tile and grout jobs out there, a good alkaline cleaner, some brushes, a turbo, gekko, hand tool and a basic sealer will be more than adequate to do the job. We dont see a ton of natural stone and when it is out of my league I am smart enough to defer. That doesnt happen often enough to worry about.

The same goes for rugs. When I am clearly out of my league, I defer to a local rug expert. They subcontract for a third less than they would charge the customer and I make a little and save the headache. I am sure Kens company can clean up on tile and rarely encounter a situation that requires more expertise than elbow grease. We are certainly not tile experts but we encounter more difficult situations in carpet than we ever have with tile.

Replace grout? No, I will let an installer mess with that while I go after the jobs better suited to my company, I cant be everything to everyone. Bottom line is I want the high profit jobs and be able to handle to lions share out there. I have no problem subbing on the rare occasion we are out of our comfort zone.

 

[Mikey P]

Just being factual Ken.


I see no mention of tile work on your site.

http://www.originalhagopian.com/cleanin ... fault.aspx



Please get those answers for me, I'm dying to know how Multi Co's do it.

 

[John G.]

Never had a problem with cleaning hard surface, and sure as heck never blew out a grout line either.

 

[Ken Snow]

Nothing factual with your comments Mike- A less insulting (and helping ) way to have addressed it could have been "hey Ken, you said you do tile & grout but it isn't on your website." I would have then responded with oh shit, we need to update it asap.

You chose to be a frickin insulting know it all (read that know nothing please) and make an assumption that an absense of something means more than it does.

Anyway even if you're off your meds I will still say thanks for pointing it out, we will get it on asap.

Ken

 

[XTREME1]

I clean a ton of tile and think I do just fine. 2 tile jobs yesterday

 

[-JB-]

California is obviously different from other parts of the country but for 99 percent of the tile and grout jobs out there, a good alkaline cleaner, some brushes, a turbo, gekko, hand tool and a basic sealer will be more than adequate to do the job. We dont see a ton of natural stone

could be why housing prices have dropped like what 40-50% in Cali? Overspending?

 

[Mikey P]

if Guerkink thinks he can clean all floors with just a scrubber and pads then Ken can pretend his chimps are prepared to address all the issues... :roll:



In the mean time, if any of you Professional Tile and Grout Cleaners are not offering color sealing at this point in time you should get a full time job at Walmart.

 

[gasaxe]

maybe you should learn how to close you dump valve before bustin everybody elses nuts..... !gotcha!

 

[Mikey P]

That's the best you've got?



Learn to Color Seal, hack!

 

[John G.]

Didn't say that now did I?

I will tell you, SO FAR, I haven't had a problem cleaning tile, stone etc.

 

[sweendogg]

Mikey did the latest ohshitsonofabitch thread stem this one? !gotcha! I'm sure you have found out over the years that they key to being successful with stone cleaning is being able to identify the product you are going to be cleaning. And you had better know before you start whether its a natural stone (like Travertine, Marble, Onyx, Granite, Slate, ), or a synthetic like Porcelains or ceramics, or if its even a mortared tile. My opinion is if you can't identify it, then you have not business cleaning it because you'll have no clue what inherent cleaning considerations you'll have to look for. You can only get lucky so many times.

 

[Mikey P]

You can only get lucky so many times.

tell me about it..