Carpet Cleaning Service: Advice Please

[KeithP]

My Wife is in the process of setting-up a cleaning business (the world need more cleaning companies) and we were hoping that we could get some advice regarding carpet cleaning.

Initially, she was of the view not to offer carpet cleaning but it seems that a lot of Landlords want the carpets cleaned for their end-of-tenancy cleans. So my question; what's the best equipment/products to buy or, as a novice, should we look at sub-contracting the carpet cleaning to an experienced carpet cleaning company to begin with?

Any advice/suggestions gratefully received.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KeithGreen]

Hi Keith, I'm no cleaning expert but I'd have thought sub-contracting the carpet work would be the best way to start.
Carpet Cleaning equipment could cost anything from a few hundred to many thousands if you buy a van equipped with a large onboard machine and accessories. So it may be best to gain the customers and some knowledge of what would work best for you/your wife before making a major investment.
Another alternative may be look at second hand equipment. A quick look on Ebay shows there to be dozens of listings for cleaning equipment and businesses.
Good luck.

 

[Greg_Thomson]

Hi Keith.

Where in hampshire are you based and which areas are you covering?

 

[KeithP]

Hi Greg

We're in Aldershot and will be covering a 20 mile radius.

 

[Greg_Thomson]

Hi Keith.

Myself and my partner run a cleaning agency / business also in hampshire (not in your area mind). We started off just with residential regular weekly cleans which personally is my favourite area of the business. We also do end of tenancy cleans and we used to outsource the carpet cleaning side. Whilst this worked fine there are a lot of rubbish carpet cleaners out there and unless you know what to look for you need to make sure you have a descent company on board.

The issue with this is that descent carpet cleaners are not cheap and customers often were paying quite a lot for an end of tenancy clean and we were not making much from it as so much was going to the carpet cleaners.

We purchased some nearly new but good quality carpet cleaning equipment from eBay as it's a lot cheaper than buying new. For £120 per day you can go on a training course with some of the manufactures which is definitely worth doing.

For us we found it meant we could secure a lot more business. We offer the carpet cleaning at a cheapish rate if booked alongside a full clean and we make our money from that.

You can get an ok setup for around £2k and for us it's been worth every penny. The only area we still use outside companies for is oven cleaning. It's cheap enough to set up and we get loads if enquiries for it but it's dirty work, hard to find staff for and I would rather stick to other areas.

Good luck!

 

[KeithP]

That's really useful info, thanks Greg.

 

[Feldon]

Hi Keith, I run a carpet cleaning business and it can be very profitable, if done correctly and you put in hard work. Couple of excellent forums dedicated to it are cleantalk.co.uk and cleanitup.co.uk. It is not too expensive to set up, can get a decent set up from £3K - £4K (new) and an O.K van from around £2K, the big but is getting the customers which is the hardest part, to get a decent return you should expect to spend anywhere between £3K and £6K on advertising, at least in the early years. If you want to make a success of it don't go down the cheap route, plenty do and end up selling their equipment off on ebay or such. Most suppliers offer a leasing option too if you can't afford to buy outright.

Supplier wise check out, worldofclean cleansmartsuppliers alletec and ashby's or restormate they all offer courses from £85 + vat per day and some will refund course if you purchase equipment form them.

 

[KeithP]

Thanks for the feedback Feldon. Thankfully we should be okay from a marketing and advertising perspective as it's my business. Can I ask, roughly how much do you typically charge for carpet cleaning and do you quote by the room or the hour?

 

[Feldon]

Hi Keith, should have looked at your signature, so you should be off to a good start but online marketing is only part of the mix and you shouldn't rely on it completely. I get around 50% of my business from the internet, the rest from magazines, leaflets and referrals.

Carpet cleaners generally charge by the area and may offer discount for volume, lots of advice on pricing and marketing on the forums i mentioned and they are free to join. Probably the best advice you will find is on the cleantalk forum, a little bit more grown up chat and advice they also own world of clean so it is a supplier owned forum but i get all my solutions from them, highly recommend them, the owner Nick is an ex-carpet cleaner who use to own his own highly successful mulity-van business.

Richard
Newleaf Carpet Care

 

[splashernet services]

I reckon a reasonable charge to start with is £25 per room then you can increase the price based on size and condition of the carpet.

 

[Feldon]

Sorry but if you charge £25 a room but you will be on the slippery road to bankruptcy. What a lot of people don't realize is that what ever the charge that is not what you will be paying yourself, firstly you are running a business and a business has overheads, diesel, van maintenance, equipment maintenance, insurance both van and public liability and treatment risk, marketing and advertising, cost of chemicals. Room sizes vary in size from box size room to well very large? you can't base your fees on a per room basis, based on area is the only way to make this work. My minium charge by the way is £65 and i regularly charge £70 for a single room, for a example a lounge. Typical job might take me 2 - 3 hours depending on furniture needing moving etc. The £25 merchants that i see usually have cheap equipment, mobile phone number only, no address and no come back and i doubt any insurance, oh and working out of the back of an estate car, cash only madam as i don't want it to effect my benefits!

 

[KeithP]

I'm of the same view as you Feldon - I don't think consumers buy a service on price, but perceived value. If your whole operation looks 'cheap' then you won't get the sort of customers who are willing to pay a decent fee for your expertise. From my own experience, I'd rather pay the extra to get a job done properly than to try and find the cheapest price that often results in a sub-standard level of work.