[windows_chepstow]

Hi Carpet Cleaners,

I'm a window cleaner - never cleaned a carpet in my life and haven't even hoovered one in about three years.

But, I clean the windows of two army married quarter estates; and being ex-army myself; I know all about the traumas of being posted and preparing your married quarter for 'March Out' (handing it back). 

If any of you live close to a barracks, I'd suggest you target the army married quarters.  Most soldiers end up marrying fertile army wives and have upteen snot-nosed brats trained in the arts of spilling Ribena all over the carpets.  Army wives also have a 'thing' about burning candles and getting the wax all over the floor too.

Many soldiers also desire the services of cleaners to clean the whole house, including cooker on a March Out.  They're not short of a bob or two either.  An average Disturbance Allowance works out at nearly £1000 (depending on the number of school aged children) and getting the cleaners in reduces the stress of yet another posting.

So, I'm planning to offer a March Out carpet cleaning service; as an add-on to window cleaning.  I may also look at employing soldiers wives to do additional cleaning - such as the said cookers.

The married quarters are small houses; hard-wearing plain type carpets and all the furniture will be removed (by removals) before I would clean.

So what would be the best budget carpet cleaner to buy to do the job; and where would be the best place to buy it?

Also, how would I price the job?

If I earnt £25 an hour window cleaning; I'd expect more for an additional one-off job.  Is this possible?

Regards,

Tosh

[mark_roberts]

I dont think any serious carpet cleaner on here would work for £25 an hour (turnover) so you should expect to earn more than this per hour but then your overheads will be more than for windows.

Carpet cleaning is easy once you know how so this is where you should start ..............with training.  Try Prochem.  Its a good hands on course.

Next you need insurance incase you make a mess or shrink a carpet.

Then you can go out and buy your machine BUT a 'budget' machine will NOT do a professional job. 

You should aim for a machine with at least 2x3 stage vacs, 100psi pump (preferable more) and a heater.  This will allow you to leave the machine outside most houses and run 50-100ft of hose depending.  This will make life a lot easier.  A few other bits if kit will be required so expect to spend around £3000 unless you buy 2nd hand.

You should get friendly with a cleaner  to learn a bit about carpet cleaning before you take the leap.  You may hate it.

Mark

[windows_chepstow]

Carpet cleaning is easy once you know how so this is where you should start ..............with training.  Try Prochem.  Its a good hands on course.

Sorry, I'm not prepared to do that.

Next you need insurance incase you make a mess or shrink a carpet.

Good advice.

Then you can go out and buy your machine BUT a 'budget' machine will NOT do a professional job. 

How about a pseudo-semi professional job?  That would be good enough for government work.  Honest.  I know the standard; I spent 17 years in the army.

...expect to spend around £3000 unless you buy 2nd hand.

Cough, cough, splutter; "Nurse, get my pills; quick".  I was hoping to spend around £500.00!

You should get friendly with a cleaner  to learn a bit about carpet cleaning before you take the leap.  You may hate it.

Good advice too, Mark.  I doubt I'd hate it though.  It can't be any worse than what I did today - all day in the drizzle and rain; up and down ladders; for a measley £25 quid an hour! 

I'll have a look in my local phone books and phone around local carpet cleaners and see if they'd take me on to be their 'monkey' for a day or two. 

Thanks for your considered reply, Mark.

If anyone else has any points or disagrees; I'd love to hear it.

Regards

Tosh.

[williamx]

You Should earn around £40-50 per hour if you have the right equipment.

I use a Prochems Powermax www.prochem.co.uk.

You should also have a heat exchanger

I use a Ashsbys Steammate www.ashbys-uk.com but I believe that nick at solutions has a better one www.solutions-uk.com.

If you are going to buy brand new then I recommend that you use a prochem agent this should save you 10-25% of the cost.  You could also try ebay they come up quite often, there is also someone who sell them brand new on ebay as well.

I'm also a window cleaner WFP user so if you want more info PM me

[Gavin Reardon]

Hi Tosh

Im in Cardiff drop me a line if I can help  

Regards Gavin

[mark_roberts]

Tosh

Would you let me clean your windows?  Ive never cleaned one in my life so I may scratch them, smash them or leave them streaky.  Now a bit of training would help me on my way to doing a decent job.  Maybe not to your standard but experience will teach me the finer points.

Now it you go out to clean a carpet and cant get it clean cause you dont know anything about chemicals, you cant remove stains cause you dont know anything about stain removal or you shrink it because you cant use the machine properly... would it not be better to spend £200 and get some training otherwise your customer will loss all confidence in you and youll end up lossing the windows business too.

You may pick up an old machine for £500 BUT I doubt it will last or will meet your needs.  Youll also need hose, wand, handtools, chemcials, sprayer, agitation machine, vacuum cleaner etc etc.

If you want to make MONEY cleaning carpets and get out of the rain then you need to change your attitude.

Mark

[Adrian Makel]

i would imagine for the sort of use you are wanting it for a compact extraction machine would be ideal.the hydromist champ is compact easy to move and easy to use.it does a good job and you could probaly pick up a secondhand one for around 500,maybe less.also rug doctor do some good compact machines.hope this has been some help and good luck.Regards...Adrian

[Big_Fish]

We cleaned a whole house of carpets on an RAF base this morning. It was minging!

There was ribena, red wine, coffee, cherryade and other non specific stains. Also pink and green ice pop, mud, animal hair and dog urine.

Without a full back up of stain/ spot removers and knowledge/ training and experience we wouldn't have stood a chance.

The carpets came up much better but obviuosly with that kind of abuse, they were never going to be perfect.

Nicky

[Ian Rochester]

We have the contract to do all march outs from our local RAF base, it is a requirement of the march out that they get us in to do the carpets professionally.

Some aren't too bad, but others are an absolute nightmare!!!  The fee is fixed for 2, 3 and 4 bedroom quarters.  We also do all the window cleaning for march outs which includes frames and insides which again is a requirement from the QM. 

However, if required I can call on another company to do the general cleaning inside and a different one to do the ovens/hobs. 

Tosh if you go in there half cocked you will be in for an eye opener and seriously struggle to get any sort of satisfactory result.  If it is not up to scratch the QM in charge of the quarters will have you back in again and again until he is happy.....or you don't get paid!

I would suggest you take Gavin up on his offer, I'm sure you could come to some agreement with him.  He's welsh, but hey, nobody's perfect!!

Ian

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

ninja best machine money can buy , and look theres one for sale . it says £450. and that is cheap.

[nick.solution]

Tosh

If you are going to clean carpets do it properly, learn how to do the job as a professional, get some training and invest in a business don't play at it.

In the longterm you will reap the benefits, do it on the cheap and it could loose you your window cleaning business as well.

Best regards Nick

[Gavin Reardon]

I would have to agree with Ron about the Ninja  :

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

and also the v2 steam mate is superb . with the ninja

[paul@ctcs]

I know of a machine that would Eclipse any Ninja

Paul

[John_Flynn]

For £450.00

Paul you been listening to the man with the Solutions too much, it is no longer funny.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Paul I'll put my £450 cheque in the post for your Eclipse, (or weren't you listening?)

Tosh, why don't you hire a machine for this 1 contract??

Shaun

[Gavin Reardon]

I Was joking about the Ninja  the Eclipe by far out performs any Ninja

[paul@ctcs]

ninja best machine money can buy ,

Thats what I was refering to chaps

Why skimp on your machine? I did with my comanche and in hind sight its little more than a toy    100 psi is a joke!!

Paul

[eco freindly. peoples champion ron .sherlock]

ninja is by far the most superior machine on the market today combined with the steammate . ive tried many models. but ninja outworks the rest. thats my opinion.and i am now a cleanit up god. so you cant rattle my cage anymore,

[John_Flynn]

What PSI does your Calipso produce Paul  Baby??