[charles911]

did a full house other day... took me 7 hours and did someones livingroom carpetpet prob 12 by 20. all in all three hours! all i had to do was move the oversized three piece about.. what am i doing wrong. my machine does take ages to hear up but cant blame that tooo much! whats the order which i should do things to try and get done, like loads faster?

[derek west]

its not about how quick you can do it but how much you get paid, all though speed does make you more competitive.

i would guess the average for a full 3 bed semi moving some but not all furniture would be around the 2 to 3 hour mark, thats an average, some are faster and some take there time.

7 hours does seem a tad excessive. are you new? if so then don't worry about it. you will get a lot quicker with practice, my first job was lounge, diner, hall stairs and landing and it too took me 7 hours. still can't believe to this day why it took me that long. the same job now (and there was a lot of furniture to move) would of takin about 1 an half hours.

[davep]

Split up the job into sections, say 3 bedrooms followed by Hsl followed by lounge

Vac and prespray open areas and aggitate, move any furniture and clean where that sits. By this time the areas you 1st treated are ready to extract.

Job done 

[wynne jones]

Quickest way to speed up in numerous ways is to go out on a job with another cc. Even if you are experienced you will pick up something you can use to speed up, but more importantly they will point something out to you when you are working.

[richy27]

if your new to cc i wuld not worry about how long its taking you, if your customers are happy with the results then thats more important thing becuase you need repeat and reco work to stay in business . obviously if you are new then speed will come with more experience and being more organised during the job.

obviously if your not new to cc ignore what i said and yes you do need to speed up as your not going to make a living cleaning a 3 bed in 7 hours.

obviously diff sytems lend themselves to being faster an organised truckmount user will knock out more jobs in a day because its generally faster. but a well organised porty user can do just as much but without as much time for tea and biscuits and kitchen sink marketting with custys.

[markpowell]

20 x 12 lounge, 3 hours. I think you are going wrong somewhere mate. Should be a max of 1 1/2 hours even for a new starter.
What is the order you work in from arriving at the job?
Mark

[charles911]

Yep am new.. which order, erm...

right. arive, get machine off van. try and leave outside or kitchen..

fill FW tank up with about 20-30L and heat to about 60 (depending on carpet type)

go to van and unload most things inc chemicals.

go to room and move stuff to one side

vac

move stuff to other side and vac

kettle on, mix chemicals for FW tank and pre-spray

Pre spray (so far PB and prespay gold)

sebo duo
 
find stains and treat and scrub in with little brush (so far for stains ive got ecoX, citrus gel alltec's free sample traffic clean)

move things about

sebo other side

leave for 10 ish mins

check heater (may be up to say 60 deg by this point)

go to van get wand and hose - connect up

start on carpet about 2ft lines one slowish pass one - 2 dry passes

slide stuff to other side of room

same again!

put stuff back and get turbo blower (which i leave on van)

move turbo blower about 5 times while packing up (on and off with f***g blue plasic shoe things)

fetch customer point out stains which have gone and any that may not have.

leave!!

[cleanability]

Well ............... Only prevac if its a minger. Ditch the plastic shoe covers, pain in the arse. Whatever temperature the water comes out of tap use it. I sometimes clean with cold water until it warms up in machine. You've lost me with the boiling the boiling of the kettle lol. Treat stains after you've given it a full clean with wand. Lots of marks/stains come off with normal clean then you can work on the stubborn ones. Dont move all furniture to one side just move each piece of furniture enough to give a quick clean with hand tool cos it aint gonna be very dirty there. As for the blower. Sell it lol. Bought mine and it never gets used The pc brigade and anorak guys on here will shoot all these points down in flames but its real life and works for me.

Chris

[Carpet Dawg]

Only use turbo dryer on multi room clean jobs (more than 2 carpets) and upholstery.

Ditch the vac. Get the customer to do it. Thats why they bought one.

Use over shoes if doing more than one carpet or if not cleaning the hall carpet. Personaly I use them all the time.

Arive at the door with machine. Take a look at the job to see what chems and spotting gear you need.

Come back with hoses, sebo or brush, buckets (chems in tuper ware plastic boxes inside of bucket), wand, sprayer. You can do this in one trip, if you cant then join a gym.

Start pre-spraying while hot tap water is filling up the bucket. Finish pre-spraying, go to sink add your in tank solution or detergent, give it a mix and add to machine.

Fill another bucket.

Scrub carpet. Citrus gel on any stuburn spots

Set up machine. Hoses etc Dwell time. Put the newly filled bucket in the machine.

Clean under sofas etc first. (giving more dwell time for the main areas) Put down foil tabs under legs.

Extract the rest of the carpet.

Pack everything away, get paid, give the lady a kiss and business card.

40 minutes to an hour if its a minger. A 3 bed with hall, stairs, landing and lounge should take around 1 and half to 2 and a bit hours. Depending on size and condtion of the carpets obviously. Longer if its a big yin.

Tony

[davep]

Stick with the overshoes though. Custys love them.

[cleanability]

Oh yeah...2 buckets a must. One filling while you take other to machine.   

Chris

[brianbarber]

Just out of interest to the experienced guys, of your times quoted, how many are TM users? If any...

I would estimate the lounge at 1- 1.5 hours depending on if it's like the antique roadshow,
And bedrooms HSL approx 2.5 hours, providing no beds and furniture
moved

As said already, some jobs take a lot longer when things need moving!


Mr B

[Phillip Mold]

Wear slip on shoes, two pairs. One dark (brown/black) for outside use, one pair white (trainers - JJB Sports) for inside, easier to change on step even when carrying things. 

[james roffey]

Wear slip on shoes, two pairs. One dark (brown/black) for outside use, one pair white (trainers - JJB Sports) for inside, easier to change on step even when carrying things. 

Yea same here one white pair of slip on trainers for in house one black for outside, you will get quicker, remember never make a trip without taking something with you even when i knock on arrival i carry stuff to house. if i am upstairs and finished with something i carry it down.

[markpowell]

This is my order of play for wot its worth.
1. move furniture to one side of room
2. Pre-spray and brush
3. get machine and fill
4. rinse
5. move furniture back
6. spray and brush
7. go to van and write reciept
8. rinse.
9. Set pile if ness and spray NI 172
10. pack up.
11. Get coin
12. go to next job

Hardly ever vac and never leave blower / airmover in place, keep moisture to a min and plenty vacuum passes and only ever leave slightly damp even 100% wool.
Im a porty user now, but was TM for a few years before i decided to sell up, then had a change of heart. Got full time operative now to spray and bucket and postcard drop 2 hours per day with me.
Mark

[Jamie Pearson]

When using your water heater. I take it that its an in tank element? Try only putting in enough to cover the element initially then add in rest of bucket when it has heated the initial amount. While you do your prep keep going back and topping it up so that it doesnt have to heat a huge amount of water from cold. Obviously starting with hot water to begin will help with this. I have always found that heater elements really only efficiently maintain the water temp rather than increase it. You need an inline if you want constant heat.

[cannon]

I do as Jamie above says, much quicker than heating a full tank of cold water.

You could be trying too hard if you know what i mean. Im still guilty of doing it myself, as an example ive took longer to clean a CLEAN carpet sometimes than real mingers.

I think ill get some slip on shoes for in-house, it seems to be getting harder and harder to get these blue over shoes on, and im looking less and less profesional when putting them on falling against walls etc.

[charles911]

so when on qoat, tell custy to hoover well before i arrive! will try thing with water heating up bit @ a time. ditch blue over shoes until final stage or seperate shoes for unside (what about crocks!!! yes!) Mark - u always use NI 172? anyway so, move furniture just a little will try using small tubs for chems.. oh ps, I had to use kettle other day for hot water as they had no hot water and i was running late as dog ped off down the road! i though when using PB u had to use boiling water? Think i could do with getting a heat n run unit but which one would fit an alltec advance???

Thanks for your comments.. your advice is actualy helping me earn a living!

ps. the other day i was talking to a custy while putting on blue sh***y things on. plastic ripped foot fell through i sort of went head first and did like a rolly-polly into her dogs bed! nice! 

[markpowell]

Take a day off and pop over to west yorks if you want, you are welcome to come with us for the day if you wish, you may pick a little up.
You can mix PB with hot tap water and it will be fine, no need to be waiting for kettles to boil.
I always make sure my sprayer is full when i leave home on a morning and it lasts the day, got the 18 L one.
Feel free to ring if you want to come over one day, Wayne Zabel did once and im sure it helped him out to some extent mate.
Mark
07786242144

[Warren Aldridge]

I only prespray and agitate visible carpet.
Under furniture etc I just do a quick rinse without moving the whole room around

Only use shoe covers if I have to go back in and walk on the clean carpet. Whats the point in wearing them the entire job duration. 98% of the time you are standing on the dirty part anyway. I work back from the furthest point and move furniture slightly as I go.