[the red carpet]

Hi Dave (Liahona)
Thanks for your reply
Thats why i have used the word (average) i doubt a average protect would be on bird feathers, or silk

I mean for a typical washable fabric, like a everyday carpet or suite manmade or natural.

Also i understand there are different types of protecter oil, water, solvent and allthough i have no idea of cost i guess some are dearer than others, again the word "average" comes into play, if the cheapest is £2 a metre and the dearest £4 a metre then £3 would be a average.

If anyone could give me a idea it would be apreciated as i have never pushed this service myself (purely because i know nothing about it) and have actually been asked a couple times to do it and just fobbed the customer of.

[Spot On cleaning]

A different angle;

I asked the question before about whether or not you dried a suite after cleaning it, and the majority it seems do, or do if only in the colder months.

So if you have cleaned a suite, and have then sprayed it with fabric protector, it's obviously wetter, so my question is do you then dry it after protector is applied, or do you leave it to dry naturally?

If you do dry after a normal clean anyway, and the drying is an extra ammount, obviously you need to charge a fair bit to cover the drying after fabric protector has been applied.

Dave

[Spot On cleaning]

Red

Where i live, i pay around £14 a gallon for craftex carpet / upholstery treatment. On a carpet with normal absorbtion it will cover 28 metres square, or about half a gallon to do a normal suite. Work out your profit from this.

Apparantly last year there was a problem with a well known branded product, and the guys who use it, were buying the craftex product to pass off as this. So is one as good as another?

Do Extracta still sell the dilutable one which you add water to?

Dave

[the red carpet]

I dont dry suites or carpets as the turbo dryer ways a ton. (and i really dont wanna get it out the van)
But somthing thats worth doing.
Ask your customers if they want it drying?
I find prob 1 in 2-3-4 do then offer the loan of the dryer for £20 and you pick it up the next day.
if you work a 5 day week, doing a couple jobs a day, thats £100 a week extra for nothing.
And if you work a tight area your gona pass them the next day anyway.

[the red carpet]

So £7 a suite, How long would that take you to do Dave?

Myself i dont like the idea of any dilutable products, that way if it dont work they can allways blame you for messing it up.
If its ready to use you cant go wrong, if it dont work you change supplier.

[Spot On cleaning]

Always advise that protector may slightly alter the texture a little bit.

Dave

[Liahona]

Red Carpet. I dont know of any customer that would  want the cleaned textile whatever that may be left wet. If you use the heavy turbo to dry you are suggesting and indeed offering a better service. Although a good idea in theory with regards the leaving of the airmover, not always practical...... try this, elevate your charges by 20 pounds  and to the same customers on your scenario you would make an extra 200 a week by just being a better cleaner and not have to go back the next day.... Again your theory is very good but is it cost effective to go back the next day to two jobs maybe? I go back to  almost all my jobs the next day or two anyway but I dont work two days in a row so the time involved isnt a problem for me. Whatever you, me or whoever does that is a little bit "better" than your so say competition then two things happen, you look better and most important you can charge more. I charge more for what I do purely because all my hoses are wrapped, well at least the ones inside the property are. Worth a thought....... Oh and the same as you, I wouldnt use a chemical to protect that you had to mix.... its one thing to use the glug glug method to pre-spray and clean but a totally different matter when protecting..... most solvent protectors work the same isnt for water based ones. Best, Dave.

[Ian Rochester]

I would say that on average I will protect about 1 in 4 of the suites I clean and generally charge £65 - £75 for it.  Protection on carpets is a lower hit rate, and I generally charge the same again as it cost to clean it (£45 to clean, therfore £45 to protect, makes life easy!)

For demonstration I always have a sample of material and carpet in the van, half of it has been protected and half is normal.  Demonstrate by getting some water and splash it all over, hey presto the water soaks straight into the unprotected half whilst is just runs off the other half!!  WOW they all say!!

I always use Extracta Stainguard XP solvent based protector, they do supply a water based one which dilutes down to 1:5, but I prefer the solvent one as it dries quicker and performs better, costs £33.60+vat for 5 ltrs.  

With a good double pass application using a power spraver and fine nozzle you should get at least two suites done from a container.  Always tell the customer that it is not 100% protection, but is designed to give them time to go to the kitchen to get a towel and blot up any spills before they penetrate the material.  

[Spot On cleaning]

Dave (liahona)

When you say wrap hoses, what do you mean exactly? Do you use a tm or portable?

Dave (Spot On)

[Liahona]

Dave, I have a portable which I use for upholstery mainly... Other than that I use a truck mount..... I clean some what larger than "normal" properties and for obvious reasons a truck mount is used..... I use dust sheets, good heavy ones, cut them up and then make 50 foot long sleeves or socks or whatever you may call them. Then where they join at the qd's I tie towels around that joint. Takes a while to put on and off but again I charge a little higher than most people do. Best, Dave.

[Spot On cleaning]

Dave

I also use a tm, but only put towels around where the pipes are likely to mark corners and on stairs.

I thought about making some [padded nylon ones with velcro for speed. I suppose anything that commands a higher price is good for business.

Dave

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It's this attention to detail that impresses the customer, but as you first stated a while back that you are in a well over average place for good spenders although there will always be in every area a good fraternity that will regularly pay the better end of prices it's just finding them and keeping them coming back!

I would say that it's not about the cleaning (as we all should be good at that) but the care you put into your work and the way that you talk to the home owner or purchasing body.

It's the little things that can have the biggest impact.

Shaun

[Alan Brooker. Aqualink Carpet Care]

Evenin' all.
Reading through this topic I notice people seem to be charging what, to the consumer, might appear high rates for stain protection so I can't figure that much stain protecting is going on (an incidental rather than a daily sale). Just a thought, but what I do is charge a lot for the cleaning and do it exhaustively and then charge a little more for the stain protection. In essence the cleaning cost pretty much covers the application of stain protection (without actually doing it) - if the client chooses to have stain protection then it is applied, groomed in and dried for what the client feels is a cheap price.
Carpet cleaning... Restoration clean £5 Msq. ... including protection £6 Msq.   Upholstery cleaning...£35 per seating unit ... including stain protection £40 per seating unit.
Dave, what do you think of these prices, I think you're in my ball park price wise.
Gotta say, I've never trained for stain protection. I figure 'go with the likes of reputable companies like Prochem, Chemspec, CFR etc' for stain protector and apply it with the attitude that you are providing a top quality service.
What's consider 'top gear' in this field then and what's it costing to apply?

Alan

[Liahona]

Price wise I dont like to say anymore because it usually causes a riot but here goes anyway. Under normal circumstances I charge a pound a square foot to clean and then also a pound a square foot to protect, however and please note that when I clean again I do not charge for the protection although in all cases I do apply it. As for upholstery and again under normal circumstances I charge 25 pounds a linear foot to clean and 15 pounds a linear foot to protect. I know to most these are high prices but my market is to carpets costing upwards of 250 pounds a square yard and upholstery in comparison the same type of prices. For what it is worth I get the majority of my work through designers and or personal assistants to the house owners so I dont have to sell to anyone, although of course to the designers originaly...... In most cases but not all the designers charge the customer and put their mark up on my invoice to them. I have two designers who double what I invoice for so, easy figures, 4 pounds a square foot, it does go to show that there are people who are willing to pay what I think we should all be charging, at least to the higher end, I appreciate this market is limited but still on the whole we under charge our services. I am sure I will get flack for this post but for those who know what I do and who I do it for also know this is accurate in statement.

[Liahona]

Alan, one last question, I understand how and why you charge the extra pound for protection so my question is, when you protect brand new carpet, how do you charge as I am sure it wouldnt be a pound a square meter? Best, Dave.

[Alan Brooker. Aqualink Carpet Care]

£2.50 Msq. Got to be honest - I really can't remember the last time I went to site for the sole purpose of stain protection. Guess I need to work on my marketing on that one.

Alan

[Liahona]

Its a good market to hit too. That way not only do you get the protection but ..........you will then get to clean protected carpets making your life so much easier.....Where are you by the way? Best, Dave.

[Steve Chapman]

Alan,
I do something pretty similiar to you protection wise and the reason being as i said before is that i end up doing protector on nearly everything i clean and come away with more money from each customer, it just works for me
cheers for the carpet blower it arrived safely and is brill, 
regards
steve

[Alan Brooker. Aqualink Carpet Care]

Good. Glad you've found a use for it. I took the brave step of ditching ALL of my blowers because using the cfr tools with ashby's v2 leaves items dry as quickly as using normal tools and a blower .

Dave, Croydon, South London.