[daysdeepclean]

Well I reckon there must be a lot of monkeys on here then  
Icwalker,don't be put off by any negative comments you read here.
Whether peeps like to admit it or not carpet cleaning must be one of the easiest trades to set up.
You don't need any formal qualifications,all you need is a van and a half decent machine,a bit of training to set you on the right path and away you go,I bet this is how the vast majority of ccs started out.
Carpet cleaning is a bit like driving,you don't start learning anything until after you have passed your test.
You will never be able to sit down and say that's it "I now know everything there is to know",although you will always meet some people that believe they do  
Good luck with whatever road you decide to venture down.
John

This could actually be one of the most negative comments I've read so far John.... How ironic

[Barry Livingstone]

I had this coversation with another carpet cleaner over the weekend and he recons were only carpet cleaners as were too thick to be anything else.....not me I said maybe him ........but made me think about what he ment!!!

[daysdeepclean]

I beg to differ mate, I for one am a qualified Aircraft Technician.... I actually enjoy what I do now, more than being responsible for making 150,000 helicopter parts fly in more or less the same direction

[Simon Gerrard]

ICwalker,
The difference between my advice and John's rather questionable attitude to professionalism is that if you follow my advice you are far less likely to be confronted with an irate customer who's carpet or suite you have just ruined and is demanding that you replace them, follow John's advice and that scenario is more or less a certainty and I'd suggest sooner rather than later. But hey, what do I know?

Simon

[Ryan Smyth]

What was wrong with Johns advice?

Ryan

[daysdeepclean]

What was wrong with Johns advice?

Ryan

What's right with it

[Ryan Smyth]

Well I reckon there must be a lot of monkeys on here then  
Icwalker,don't be put off by any negative comments you read here.
Whether peeps like to admit it or not carpet cleaning must be one of the easiest trades to set up.
You don't need any formal qualifications,all you need is a van and a half decent machine,a bit of training to set you on the right path and away you go,I bet this is how the vast majority of ccs started out.
Carpet cleaning is a bit like driving,you don't start learning anything until after you have passed your test.
You will never be able to sit down and say that's it "I now know everything there is to know",although you will always meet some people that believe they do  
Good luck with whatever road you decide to venture down.
John

While agreeing with John I would go further in saying again that carpet cleaning is not a trade, can anyone on here
honestly disagree and put it on a par with traditional trades and the associated training period? Natural fibres and synthetic fibres, use appropriate chems for each and in a nut shell thats it. Obviously there will be the odd occasion were you will come across something different like belgian wilton, not hard to identify even without the 7 or 8 hours training you must get to be a professional....do you think anyone in the accountancy,medical or law professions would agree that  carpet cleaning is up there with them? I doubt it, same goes for tradesmen who served an apprenticeship, plumbers,sparks,chippies,brickies etc would they agree? Theres a definate strain of unjustified self importance on here.

Ryan

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Ryan

So how would you describe carpet cleaning if it's not a trade ?


Steve

[Jason Ryan]

And its not just about cleaning carpets either, you can also add upholstery, leather cleaning/restoration and go into other avenues such as crime scene cleaning (cant remember the proper name) all of which require more training.

While then theres the running of the business which involves a hell of alot like marketing, accounts, web issues and growing your business in general.

[derek west]

i can see both sides of this discussion.
carpet cleaning is easy, so i agree with john and ryan, but it would be foolish to clean someones carpets without a few days training.
personally, i don't see myself as a carpet cleaner and never will. i'm a business man. i run a business. i don't just clean carpets, i design leaflets, i plan marketting campaigns, i'm enrolling on a web design course. and a bookkeeping and accounts course.
my new part time employee starts tomorrow so i'm also an employer, ish.

at the end of the day, if your innit for beer money then you'll probably never take it serious enough to get training, and if you FU! you'll just blame the customers carpets and wipe your hands of it.

theres a company local to me, he sold his biz to a new guy. showed him the ropes and thats it, he's now my competition. i got asked by one of his ex customers if i cleaned curtains she told me he cleaned them but she wasn't happy with the results, i had a look, "there velvet love, you can't wet clean them. "well he did" "in that case love, give him a ring and tell he owes you a new set of velvet curtains"

theres a lot of dangers out there that a 2 day course could stop you from making.

its not rocket science, but you need to know before you start.

your choice.

derek

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Training will allow you to do a bit of "showmanship" when quoting for business. you can explain why you do a burn test, or a shrink test on fabrics for example. This will command the client's attention and demonstrate you know what you are on about.

Thus you are more likely to get the job booked and charge a higher fee.

But I doubt this scenario would ever occur for somebody who is self taught.

I started a few weeks before I got on my training courses, before that I had been out learning the ropes with somebody who knew it but was lousy at explaining it.

 All I can say is that cleaning in ignorance is a terrible situation; once you have been on courses and realised what could have gone wrong and how you have been lucky to get away with not buying a client an new carpet there is no way you would avoid training ever again.

[aandm]

IC

As a "newbie" ( an expression in itself that is relative) i am not surprised by some of the negative comments you have got on this thread and after looking for a while you will see a common theme ( or commom people having the same negative attitude towards people such as yourself) however it would appear to me that on this forum you earn status and "stars" for the number of posts you make regardless of your experience or the content of your responses,now thats got to tell you something!!!!

That said there are a lot of good people who do know what they are talking about and do give very good positive advise, and those are the ones you should be listening to.

Anyway, get some training and good luck.

[Ryan Smyth]

Im assuming there is some governmental structures and categories to divide certain jobs into their appropriate places and i would imagine carpet cleaning would come under unskilled labour, the same as site labourers, tarmac layers, window cleaners, binmen, bus drivers, taxi drivers etc etc etc. Im sure all these jobs mentioned have a certain amount of job associated knowledge attached to them but they are not described as SKILLED labour and therefore not a trade.

Ryan

[Matt Lindus]

Simon,

I send a monkey out carpet cleaning, well he looks like one. Customers always seem happy, I'm happy with my bit of pocket money and monkey seems happy enough with his pin money.

If monkeys not busy with carpets I have him swinging from roof tops with aerials in his hairy arms.

Matt  

[lcwalker]

All comments have been very interesting but a i gather you dont have to have qualifications to be a carpet cleaner like many jobs so is it a trade or not,well it doesn't matter it's a job you do to earn money.I seemed to get alot of stick for mentioning (self taught) well from what i have read after 1/2 days basic training you are self teaching yourself from then and what can you learn in 1/2 day it can only be the bear minimum.But in every job whether they are trained or not there are good and bad, i bet there are carpet cleaners out there with loads of very happy customers who have never trained and i bet theres loads that have trained with no customers, at the end of the day it depends on what sort of person they are.But i do agree a day or so of basic training would help your confidence and give a few pointers but after that it will be on your own teaching yourself.

[aandm]

IC

Thats exactly it, a plumber or an electrician does'nt learn everything he needs to know on a course, he learns through experience after his training and that is how it is with most things  in life except with carpet cleaning where you shouldnt or else you may be putting people lives in serious danger!!!!!!

[lcwalker]

I just want to add a couple of examples 1,my dad asked a tv aerial man that does loads of work on the privately owned village estate where my dad lives,to sort out his digital aerial and it's still doesn't get reception, he came in a shiney red van all the gear he was useless.2,The same estate employed painters to paint my dads rented house its quite a big thatched former farm house 5 bedrooms including next door,they took 2 1/2 hrs to paint the walls all round 1 coat went on like water, i spoke to my father inlaw who has done painting for years he said with a rollers and brush it should take a week, they spayed it,it should have had 2 more coats,also the window filling was terrible as were the black specks and runs and they are still doing work around the estate.These are poor so called tradesmen who charge very high, who turn up in shiny well written vans with the gear do a poor job and everyone rates them it doesn't make sense.Also i know of a gardener who drives a new L200 with his new john deere mower cuts 1 village grass in just over a morning and charges £300 a day and he's busy most of the time are customer that shallow to not see beyond these peoples vehicles and gear.

[lcwalker]

doesn't the fact that your self taught in so many professions and yet not fully successful in any of them, and now your looking round for something else to add on to make up your wages, doesn't that tell you something?

decide what you want to do, wether it be gardening, mechanics, painting, window cleaning, or even carpet cleaning, put all your efforts into it, including the best training possible, (its free if you look carefully for it) not just for the job but for marketting and general running of your business, even web design and stuff comes in handy. once youve done that you shouldn,t need to look for other ways to make money.

there are loads of successful gardeners out there who aren't looking at anything else to add on cos there to busy. bet they studied not just how to cut grass but have a knowledge of plants shrubs and everything else that contributes to being a success. you can't learn on the job what time of year a rhodidandrum needs planting

just the same, you can't learn on the job why a B/W will shrink, and yes, you can wet clean them.

training gives you confidence which the customer notices.
training gives you a better result.
training speeds you up.
training is paramount to every successful busines in my eyes.
training my friend, is a must.

derek

Ok im curious how is a b/w cleaned was any of my answer correct?.

[daysdeepclean]

Go on a course and find out :

[aandm]

IC

There you go, the font of all knowledge willing to share none!!!