[Jor dan]

Afternoon,

Been doing mainly domestic, never really advertised for commercial, but have just landed a commercial job if I can give them a decent price. Its subcontract through a larger cleaning company. I have priced it at £1.50 per square meter for the carpets which they have agreed, but they have added on extra's too.

It consists of:

180 square meters. (offices)
19 stairs
3 seater & 2 seater sofa
20 office chairs.

would I be able to do all this on my own in a full day?

what should I charge for the office chairs, and sofa's, I usually charge £50 for 3 seater, £40 for 2 seater, an £10 for small chairs should i half it?

Obviously it wont be cash payment, how many days should I give them to pay an invoice.

I broke down prices at:

180 square meters = £270
19 stairs = £30
Both sofa's = £50
Chairs = £100 (for all 20 chairs at £5 each)

Total = £450

is that going in too high?

Much appreciated any advice I can get...

[Mike Halliday]

In  the time it takes you to clean the sofas how much of the carpet do you think you will clean? ......Half of it? ......A third of it? How does £50 compare to the amount you will make cleaning the carpet?

Same with the stairs, compared to the carpet how long will it take?

My point is the sofas are very under priced and so are the stairs. You need to contact the comapny before you do the work and tell them how much extra it will cost them...... BEFORE YOU DO THE WORK!!!

Just say ...... " the extra work will take as long as the carpets which we have already agreed the price of £270, I usually give a 20% discount on additional work completed on the same day so it will be an extra £210 for the sofas & stairs"

Do it cheap this time and you will be tieing a noose around your neck for any subsequent work

[Jor dan]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the input.

OK, I have recalulated.  I Have already agreed to give them 20% off my total price as a subcontract discount, I think they are wanting a bit of profit out of this too, If it was the office block hiring me directly, id probably go in higher.

I'm going to go with this I think:

180 sq meter carpets: £270
Stairs (19 steps): £40
3 & 2 Seater Sofa: £90
20 Chairs: (£10 each): £200

Subtotal: £600
+20% off
Total: £480

Reason i'm not charging majorly high, is that I want to secure it as it will be good experience, bit nervous to be honest, I can just imagine my machine blowing up halfway through.

I have a Scorpion machine, will I be able to do all this in one day hot water extraction?, with a helper filling the machine with water and prevac area's.

should I prevac?

Also, how long do they have to pay an invoice?

[CleanerCarpets]

Yes you need to prevac!

Is it carpet tile or fitted carpet?

If your helper can only prevac and fill the machine you will be pushed to do it properly in a day, especially if you are using HWE for it all (thats assuming you pre vac, prespray, agitate & rinse.)

Would encap be possible on the carpet? Do you have a local cleaner who can help so they are actually cleaning as well? You could also pick some pointers up from them at the same time.

Or, book it over 2 days - upholstery one day, carpet another. If you are wanting experience and to gain knowledge its good, but you don't want to turn your first commercial into a nightmare and put you off doing it again.

You are the expert - the company will have no idea of the actual time/process involved. Many see it all as a spray and suck don't realize the process is more than that so you need to be realistic about what can be done and educate them.

And you are too cheap on the carpet IMO

[Jor dan]

Its priced as £2.00 sq meter on under 100sqm on my website, or £1.50 over 100sqm so can't really change that, as that is what they have seen.

I originally contacted them in the first instance to see if they needed a carpet cleaner on the books, with an additional 20% off if they can secure me some work, ive been going nearly a year now, and its been slow.  I will feel confident upping my prices, when I am more confident in myself as a carpet cleaner.  I have very good results in domestic settings.

I'm going to try and do it all in one day, I don't know any other local carpet cleaners near Manchester who can help, but my partner can help with the vacumming and agitation, as I have a large rotary, and a smaller rotary, and 2 vacuum cleaners.

Is it possible to prespray with the wand, rather than my pump up presprayer, as i dont have an electrical presprayer yet.

I dont know if its fitted or tiles, I've worked in many large offices and never seen a fitted carpet so I will assume tiles at this point.

[Tony Stewart]

Bad points first ............. way underpriced. You need to prevac, prespray and then hot water extract. Then you need a rotary to dry it off to stop it wicking back especially if its carpet tiles. You may get away with it if you have the darker tiles.
You are way under on the stairs.... I bet they are wider than domestic ones and they will need the noses wiping down too with a cloth if they are aluminium treads.
Good points..................... just have a go over two days and don't try and bust a gut. The upholstery will be bullet proof and will clean up really well..
Get your partner to prevac as that will remove a lot of dirt. Make sure you have a decent vac with rotating brushes and not a Henry. Vac North South then East West.
Put down a prespray with the sprayer. Get a red pad or blue on the rotary and agitate it into the carpet. keep it lubricated and get a decent red one not a cheap one, so there is no dye transfer, which sometimes happens on the cheap red ones.
Fill scorpion and extract with whatever you want. Then get a wool bonnet and dry off the tiles. Dont let it drag, Bit of encap on the bonnet and you are laughing.
The helper "feeds the wand" so prespraying, rotary and then filling and emptying etc.
Voila.....................easy.  Say to the company as you have given them 20% so  it's 7 day payment as you have kept the price as low as you can for them.
Then while you are doing it time everything that you do and then you have information on how long the job takes so you can then work out an hourly rate for each different type of job that you do. Then you will see whether 180 sqm is worth your hourly rate for £270. Its a learning curve but my advice is someone is paying you money to learn on this job so it gets you into a different mindset for the job.

Look you have done well to get it so have a go, then next time you will know what you are worth for the job that you do.
Sorry it rambles but I hope it makes sense.

[derikraven]

Don't be nervous. Bung in your invoice at the price YOU are happy with. Give them 30 days to settle. Don't worry, be happy
                                                                 and just do the job the way you normally clean carpets.

[derek west]

Have you got a rotary Jordan?

[Jor dan]

Thanks for the input tony, I usually charge around £20 for a small set of stairs in a domestic, so just figured I would double it.
I have already put the price to them as £600 subtotal, £480 total with the 20% off.  I wait with bated breath lol.

I have from 8am to 6pm to do the whole job (if I get it, its already provisionally agreed) so 10 hours, with 2 of us.

Derek, I have a 17" Rotary (175rpm) and also a 13" Oreck Orbiter with the proper Green Brush!  Tony, You said a red pad, those flat ones? I have never used one of them before, I was going to use an agitation brush, no?

I have a Kirby G6 vacuum, I chose it over the sebo bs36 as the build quality on this one is amazing I feel when i compared them.