[cleartech Window Cleaners]

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on cleaning 1800 Chairs at a bingo hall? I do a lot of different work for this company, mostly pressure washing and windows and they want me to do this for them as well even though I’ve not done much upholstery cleaning before. Don’t want to let them down however I’m Not sure what to charge. The seats aren’t badly soiled so I was thinking of steam cleaning them as they will need to be dried ready for them to be used during the day.
Thanks

[derikraven]

I really can't advise how much to charge per seat, perhaps you should charge by the hour. I would imagine you would need to do so many seats per day so as to guarantee the seats are ready when needed.

[Mike Halliday]

What do you mean by ‘steam’ clean them ? I would use a foam method to clean them ‘thiswould give you the fastest drying time

This is not a job to do by yourself you need a couple of helpers. one man vaccume them, one man scrubbing in the foam and yourself extracting them. if I was you I would find a carpet cleaner to go in on the job with you and use his equipment.

Price wise I would say  a 3 man team will knock out 18 chairs an hour so work out your price from that

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

As the chairs were to be cleaned out of hours I presumed that a steam upholstery cleaner with built in vacuum would dry them quickest. As I said I’m quite new to this so not really sure what the best way forward would be. Really appreciate your advice, I’ll look into local guys who could give me a hand.
Thanks again

[John Kelly]

As Mike says use a Fast Drying Upholstery Shampoo or Encap. Brush in with Tampico Brush and towel off.

http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=19650104

http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=16517721

http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=270918

[Shaun_Ashmore]

If you’re talking hot water extraction (vax style spray and suck) then they’ll take a long time to dry, if you’re look at steam as in  pressured steam like from a steam mop then you’ll come unstuck specially if the fabric has a pile or nap.

The fabric may not appear to look dirty but I bet it is when you start let’s face it I bet they’ve never been cleaned in years or even vacuumed when you start you’ll see loads of dirt lifting out and then when they eventually dry the soil will lift to the top and may look the same as when you started.

Keep it as dry as you can encap clean them a good vac first and then shampoo them.

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

Thanks again for all the advice above. Another question regarding the dry cleaning. Would it be better to take an extraction machine instead of towelling off after putting the encap on as I imagine with 1800 chairs it’s going to be very labour intensive? I’ve spoken to the management today as well and apparently all the chairs are Camira fabric if that makes a difference? 

[John Kelly]

Camira make industrial fabrics for office chairs, trains, busses etc. Bomb proof. These fabrics are designed to let dirt go through them into the backing. The whole idea of not using an extraction method is to prevent drawing all this dirt back through as it dries. Encap and towelling off cleans the fabric giving a very good visual clean but without disturbing that deep down dirt.

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

Ok, would you suggest using drill attachments to do most of the hard graft as there’s so many chairs? Just wondering how vigorous you have to scrub the chemicals with the one you’ve sent the link of?

[John Kelly]

Yes drill brush with decent angled drill like Dewalt or Ryobi etc.

http://www.restormate.co.uk/epages/15094.sf/en_GB/?ObjectID=42129&ViewAction=FacetedSearchProducts&SearchString=drill&FacetValue_CategoryID=50416428

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

Great thanks for the advice John. I’ll definitely use this method.

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

Went to see this job today, it was grim! Blood, chewing gum, what looked like tar and other unmentionables on the seats. Not sure how a bingo hall gets these kind of stains but I’m thinking it will be a challenge to clean with an encap or low moisture shampoo on its own. Any recommendations on a good stain remover to use as a Prespray?

[neil 47]

Shockwave has always been a favourite of mine

[Mike Halliday]

You should have taken a photo to show us.

If they are really bad you might have to wet clean them, could the place close of sections and do the clean in stages? Say do 300 then let them dry overnight then do another 300 the next night and keep going until they are all done

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

This is one of the ones I attempted to clean however it took a long time using the dry method to get anywhere near clean and I still wasn’t happy with it when I left. The club said they could shut off certain parts to let them dry out over they course of the day if I wanted to wet clean them. Only problem I see is the dirt bleeding through which concerns me

[John Kelly]

What product did you use?

[cleartech Window Cleaners]

It was a low foaming encap cleaner. Wasn’t really impressed with it, it was a quick test to see if it would work. I plan to get the dynamall to do the job as it seems the best fit.

[JandS]

Leave well alone...not for me.

[Strata Cleaning]

Hi
We had been cleaning cinema chain seats for months and I have been looking for efficient and effective way of doing it for a long time (money in this is tight) - you might be lucky to have a client that is prepared to pay reasonably though.
Its not an easy job and I need to say I hated it.  Time pressure is incredible. The seats must be dry the following morning. Method choice the night you clean them is incredibly important. Again, you might be lucky to do them in parts or have more time than couple of hours to dry them.
Probably environment with your clean would be similar to the cinemas we have cleaned i think.
Its not ideal but the way we found most efficient way on relatively fresh chairs was to go round and apply citrus gel on chewing gums, prespray then back and start again with portable extraction machines (easier to go in rows - problem with frequent refilling of the tank though).  Gums scrapped with stiff kitchen knives if needed.

Good looking seats - Minitex  from tehatherm or alike machine - orbot mini or even a good drill tool with flat velcro pad that you can attach a pad to. Minitex is good due to a long cord but the weight can be felt on shoulders after 6 or 7 hours shift.
Encap and agitate. Want to, you can rinse with portable.

If you can move the chairs in your scenario then I would not use anything else than this:
http://www.santoemma.com/default.php?t=ecomm&eid=00015&vimgd=&el1=100&el2=10030

Hope this helps

[Strata Cleaning]

Sorry. meant to add that we managed  to cover 1200 seats per night on average. 6 guys @ 10 hrs shift. Thats after loads of cleans with failures on the way though. You can hopefully do your cost math based on that.