[Neil Jones]

Hi,

I'm pricing a large contract. Approx what is the coverage you can do with a Cimex? It may help me a bit as I plan on buying two if I win the contract.

Also what Does anyone typically know what they get meter age they get out of for instance Dynamall? Any solution really in the encapsulation range.

Tends not to be an issue this sort of thing as I can usually guesstimate quite well but this is big.

Around 9000 sqmt six times yearly.

[Neil Jones]

Wow, that second paragraph reads awful. I was rushing. I think you may get the gist.

[Kev Martin]

Neil

Talk to Jamie at CSUK

Kev

[Neil Jones]

Neil

Talk to Jamie at CSUK

Kev

I've emailed him, no response. TBH i'd be buying them off him so i'll give it another few days.

[Tony Stewart]

I and my son did 1400sqm with 4 x 4litres of the encap solution. I think that the mix was 20:1. However the Cimex needs to lay it down with a white mix on the floor and actually it used more than I thought. Not that it was a bad thing really, I just thought it was low moisture and it's more moisture cleaning if you know what I mean.
One thing to watch though.......some of the heavily soiled areas will need HWE as if they are really black (like the entrances to loos etc) it means that the carpet is "full" and no amount of vacuuming or encapping will make it go away. As for the speed of it it's a bit like slow walking a lawnmower so that amount that you can cover is much quicker than using a single rotary. Have a word with Jamie or John at Restormate as he is the one that sells the Dynamall and Jamie sells the DS2.
Only you know the client , the soiling and the layout and what is required but Neil I wouldn't be pricing it at bargain basement prices unless forced to. Thats just me though!
One last point................if you are doing that amount of carpeting then your hands will cramp up on the trigger handle. I used a very expensive piece of equipment called a cable tie to slip over the handle. It will save your hands.

[gwrightson]

I Have found when using the cimex you will get to know exactly how often to pull the trigger depending on the amount of soiling , quite often a case of on off on off will save quite a fair amount, it is not a case of keeping your finger on the trigger all the time, don't be tempted to put vast amounts on heavier soiled area,s , it doesn't work like that.   

I have been using cimex for the last 7 or 8 years and find going back over an area  after a few minutes if heavily soiled is better, a good idea for larger spills is to put solution around the stain then work it in ,if that makes sense.

For bad traffic area,s I have not really struggled ,even Chinese and Indian restaurants  , I even have one insists I encap every time.
Geoff

[gwrightson]

 Sorry forgot to mention coverage,

I would suggest 400sq yds an hour quite easily if the conditions are right .

Geoff

[Neil Jones]

Geoff that's really helped me out, thank you.

Tbh the FM invited me to tender, when I got there she told me she was fairly new and that I was the only person she was asking. To go against the current company. As she was new she wanted comparisons, so I reckon I'd have to beat this guy significantly to get it.

He does 6000sqmt per night (9pm to 5am), I was amazed. The carpets are immaculate to be fair, but they are cleaned on average every 8 weeks. I really don't think he does ever sq inch, I think he skips or just very quick pass on the clean parts.

I'm keen to get it but I won't do it for peanuts, it could lead on to a lot more for us as they have all the exterior cleaning which is what excites me the most.

Speaking to a few staff, the guy who showed me round a bit he said they stick with contractors who are honest and do the job so hopefully can be a long term thing.

I get you on the cable tie, we use it on all our pressure washing guns, funny you mention it, this week I've developed more symptoms of carpel tunnel which I'm not happy about. I'm only 31.

Generally I'm at £1.20-£2.00 per sqmt on commercial but I reckon that will be way too much.

[Neil Jones]

Sorry and Tony, I didn't see it was a separate person, just noticed now reading again.
Thanks

[Neil Jones]

Tony how long did 1400 stmt take you?

[Neil Jones]

Every 8 weeks is a lot, these carpets are really clean, its amazing really because they are two years old and even the desk seating areas are showing little signs of wear.

[davep]

I wouldn't use a cable tie as that'll use way more solution than needed.

[Tony Stewart]

Neil we did it in a day and a 1/2. Geoff is right about working the spots and sometimes it is better to pre spot the area and leave a dwell time for it to work. I was only being concise, but if yiou are doing large areas youstill have to walk it up and down so you need flow on the Cimex to put the liquid down. hence the cable tie. As you know the pressure washer guys use it. Ours was different. On the cleaner areas it was fine but maybe I am a numptie but there is no way that if the carpet is black it just disappears.We had already agreed to use a truckmount on the badly soiled downstairs part of the building as in my opinion encapping would not have produced the result, so we priced that in.
When it came to the upstairs I encaopped it and it was fine but I still ended up truckmounting the main corridoor as it did not come up well enough. We had priced the job well so changing the way we cleaned did not cause us too much heartache. Please do not think that I am knocking the process but commercial carpet cleaning is tricky to get right on the price and give the customer a great result. We got the job because the other cleaners had done a poor job in the customers eyes.They may have used Dynamall and a cimex but sometimes the carpet is trashed so be careful to manage the situation and go over the whole of the building and talk it through. Even a truckmount cannot mend a carpet.
Sorry if this sounds negative but if the FD has given you the heads up just chat him though it. If he's doing 9000 sqft in a night with Geoffs figures it does not stack up, and Geoff is right. If you are then not cleaning carpets then that's a dangerous path to tread 

As for the cable tie, if you alter the tap on the solution feed so that it is less when the tank is full and more open when the tank is less than half full you can adjust the flow. Squeesing the trigger on and off is just the same. It is on a big floor area that is open when your hand gets tired and you can adjust the flow to the forward motion of the Cimex.

[Neil Jones]

I was under the impression the cable tie was for just the movement not the pull on feeding the solution.

We do a lot of commercial already, did one this morning, so I understand about heavy soiled carpets in walkways and the need to extract but honestly I walked around the whole of this site and they can all be encapped without an issue. I'd go as far as saying they are the cleanest commercial carpets i've seen, hence why I think the current guy probably skips areas or light passes them. BTW this is something I wouldn't do and work my price off thinking I was going to. 6000 sqmt a night not sqft he does, how I don't know.

[Neil Jones]

Sorry 3000 sqmt per night not 6

[Neil Jones]

When you look at it at £1 persqmt its 3k a night, 4.5k a month on average over a year. Do people actually pay that for carpet cleaning?

[gwrightson]

An area that size, all easy going you will breeze it @50 to 75p a mtre,  coat of solution negligible.

 Even at those prices you looking at around £200 per hour

  Geoff

[Simon Gerrard]

Neil,
In my experience these type of jobs go to the lowest bidder and the people that do them  do it at extremely low prices and therefore are very hard to unseat. Usually when they go out to tender it is purely to make sure they are getting a good deal from their contractor and will only change if there is a significant cost saving, so don't get too excited.
I did a tender for a cinema group but the incumbent company was pricing in night hours, not sqm' and it was all they did.
Simon

[Neil Jones]

Yea I know that Simon. When I found out I was the only other person along with the current contractor it was the first thing that came in to my head.

[Tony Stewart]

Simon makes a good point despite me saying dont be too cheap. Sometimes you are column fodder for the accountant, so why not have the converstion nicely to say that you dont want to upset the current cleaners by getting it wrong but ask him what sort of budget he has put aside , or even ask him what is he currently paying. Only you know the exact way to approach it, but sometimes you then get a clue as to which way to go.