[justin cooper]

First post so a big hello to everyone on the forum

Sorry but its another noob question

I would really like to set up for both carpet cleaning and drive way cleaning just so i have more chance of getting work,is this wise or should i just concentrate on one thing at a time ?If so which one of the two would you recommend starting first. I'm thinking i would prefer the carpet cleaning as its not weather dependent.

Before this i worked in an engineering factory and when i lost that i did spend a few month's cleaning block paving on a holiday camp, but have no business experience or carpet cleaning experience at all but i will be going on a training course.

Any help or advice you can give to someone starting out for the first time would be greatly appreciated .........regards

[*Hector*]

For my tuppence worth......

You have some experience drive cleaning.
The season is now upon us for drive cleaning.
You have a good 5-6 months of the good weather, and this will give you time to get yourself on some training courses, and sort out in your own mind what equipment etc you would need for carpet cleaning.
It is much easier to knock doors for drive cleaning, to start out with, as you can see at a glance which customers "should" need your services. With carpet cleaning door knocking (although it does work) is a lot more soul destroying.

Have a look on the general cleaning section of this forum, that is where the drive cleaning people usually hang out.

Carpet cleaning is a lot slower to take off, and get money in from the outset, so for the cash flow side of things .... Yup you've guessed it... I would say drive cleaning.

HTH (hope that helps) 

[justin cooper]

Hi Hector thanks for the input,i did think that finding work cleaning drive ways would be a little easier for the reasons you said .

Another quick question if you don't mind when you go on a carpet cleaning course apart from the obvious things like identifying different types of carpet and how to clean them,do they teach you about what a customer expects like how much furniture should be removed from a room what you shouldn't move (do you remove all bedroom ferniture)? ,types of insurance ,the different types of equipment you should carry,where to buy chemicals from etc are there any books you can buy with all the different types of carpet ,sofa materials and how to treat them. (that was more than one question sorry )

[*Hector*]

It has been more years than I care to remember since I did my initial carpet cleaning training.

It depends where you do your training, as to what they tell you. for instance a manufacturer based training course will encourage you to buy only their products, and machinery. A national training course will be more un-biased, and not leave you with much clue where to go, the only way for a happy medium is to go out with a cleaner not too far (or too near) your area of work, and see how he/she does it.

Furniture removal is down to you. I always tell the customer that I will not move anything that will break or give me a hernia, and I will not move huge TV's etc. All have been fine with this. I move beds from one side to the other of the room, but only if they don't seem as though they will break. Generally I go round beds.... 

Insurance... there are a few companies who advertise on here, and all you really need is treatment risk as an additional option, because that covers you for what you are working on... Normal liability insurance does not.

Other than that, just read previous posts on here, use the search function at the top, and have a good look round... Most questions have been answered in 1 form or another on here.

Never be afraid to ask questions though as you will get a variety of answers to most you ask.

 

[Mike Halliday]

Carpet cleaning £50/hr

Pressure washing £100/hr

Errrr...... guess which one you should start with

But it's harder to build a business around PW & it's a little bit seasonal, but if I was starting now I would spend the summer PWing & use any free time to dabble in Capet cleaning ( and get some courses/ experiance under your belt.

Ps I live in hull an hour away, I do both, if you want to see the jobs in action let me know

[justin cooper]

Hi mike thanks for chipping in, it would be great if i could come over  and see the jobs being done at some point id be really grateful for the opportunity.     regards Justin

[Ian101]

Pressure washing £100/hr

wow that's a good rate    ... is that day in day out though ?

[Mike Halliday]

Ian, Most of our jobs average that amount ( for 2 of us, it might be slightly less for a single person)

It never drops below £80, did £600 last Thursday in 5 hrs. this is a good rate but we can do a phenomenal amount of cleaning in an hour, so it us actual good value for the customer.

[Ian101]

Ian, Most of our jobs average that amount ( for 2 of us, it might be slightly less for a single person)

It never drops below £80, did £600 last Thursday in 5 hrs. this is a good rate but we can do a phenomenal amount of cleaning in an hour, so it us actual good value for the customer.

fair play mate ... inspires me this does as to what can be achieved ... appreciate its not (probably) happened overnight for you but about to start concentrating less on our window cleaning and getting back into the pressure washing (gave it a go for 2 months last year) ... what machine / machines do you use ??

[Mike Halliday]

I built the machine my self it's a bowser trailer with a 18hp kholer and big Cat pump (3500psi @ 10gl/min)

The nice thing is we turn up at jobs with a full tank pull the hose off the live reel and get stck in.

We get a good price as I have a full presentation on my ipad, I have a bit of  competition  but I can sell why we are a bit pricey compared to other companies, eg we weedkill the drives before cleaning and my son was trained at bishop burton collage (which means nothing to you but if you live in my area you would know the place, it has a great reputation)