Stop cleaning rugs!!!!

[Matt Strader]

I have officially stopped cleaning wool rugs in peoples homes. I will offer free p/u and d/o for them and take them to a specialist. I have a deal worked out with a local company and I get a great rate. Low enough to make some $$.

Reasons: I surely don't want to have colors bleed. It's hard to clean fringes in the home. The cleaning by a TM is barely scratching the surface for soil removal. The pressure from the wand might damage the fibers. THE SMELL. It adds a level of professionalism. And I think by being honest about "not really being able to throughly clean them in the home" adds that trust factor people are looking for.

Up until today I offered in home cleaning of wool area rugs and thought I was doing a good thing. I have realized, it's just not really cleaning them.

Any thought?

[the rugman]

Most of the cleaners that bring me rugs have no problems. Customers like the fact that they are binging the rug to a trusted pro. Just educate them as to why it needs to be taken out.

[rjfdube]

I have officially stopped cleaning wool rugs in peoples homes. I will offer free p/u and d/o for them and take them to a specialist. I have a deal worked out with a local company and I get a great rate. Low enough to make some $$.

Reasons: I surely don't want to have colors bleed. It's hard to clean fringes in the home. The cleaning by a TM is barely scratching the surface for soil removal. The pressure from the wand might damage the fibers. THE SMELL. It adds a level of professionalism. And I think by being honest about "not really being able to throughly clean them in the home" adds that trust factor people are looking for.

Up until today I offered in home cleaning of wool area rugs and thought I was doing a good thing. I have realized, it's just not really cleaning them.

Any thought?

WTG; I do the same thing; Delivery/finders fee. I have my Tech do all the lifting since his back is good; but I collect a good little fee while someone else does the work!!

[floorguy_724]

Same here, I sub out all my rug work to a local pro. I still make $2/ft. per rug so it works out pretty good. If I can't get to it I will just pass them on to each other and they usually throw me some work too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Matt Strader]

Same here, I sub out all my rug work to a local pro. I still make $2/ft. per rug so it works out pretty good. If I can't get to it I will just pass them on to each other and they usually throw me some work too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

thats what im getting... $2 over what they charge me

[Kenny Wright]

That's what I do, too and it works out great for me.

[Richard Baldwin]

I think the important thing with area rug cleaning is you have to have a shop to attend to them properly. If you are getting more than $2 ft then kudos to you.

We clean wool area rugs in our shop for .75 ft and most people still balk at the price.

Ex: 8x10 rug = $60 to clean plus $12 with SG. People in my area would not pay more than $72 to clean and protect a wool area rug.

Local pickup and del $20

[the rugman]

Richard - are you talking an oriental rug? Those are some crazy low prices! I get $2.50 sq ft to clean. Thats a little low but we have a couple really large outfits in my area.

[shane deubell]

I have officially stopped cleaning wool rugs in peoples homes. I will offer free p/u and d/o for them and take them to a specialist. I have a deal worked out with a local company and I get a great rate. Low enough to make some $$.

Reasons: I surely don't want to have colors bleed. It's hard to clean fringes in the home. The cleaning by a TM is barely scratching the surface for soil removal. The pressure from the wand might damage the fibers. THE SMELL. It adds a level of professionalism. And I think by being honest about "not really being able to throughly clean them in the home" adds that trust factor people are looking for.

Up until today I offered in home cleaning of wool area rugs and thought I was doing a good thing. I have realized, it's just not really cleaning them.

Any thought?

You are 100% right

[lmullica]

I'm getting $3 per foot to clean and $4 if it needs odor removal. I always thought it was too high but people are calling me every day to clean their rugs. No in-home cleaning. All at my shop. Believe in yourself. You are worth it if you think you are.

[LisaWagner]

Smart move Matt. It's the easiest way to get into rug cleaning... make money, no cleaning required.

Lisa

[Richard Baldwin]

I will try to justify why we only charge .50-.75 as base price for cleaning area rugs, as I know most cleaners charge $2 and up.

1. Our method is probably more basic than most. We pre-vac, prespray, bonnet then extract with HWE. Wool gets an acidic topspray to help neutralize and ensure it dries bright without browning. Urine contaminated rugs get a saturation bath and those are $2 ft. We do not, as of yet have a rug badger, although we are planning on getting one when we can afford it, so a heavy oriental rug that is encrusted with sand, will most likely still have sand coming out of it when they get it back. Most high priced rug cleaners have huge workshops with equipment running into tens upon tens of thousands of dollars. Although our customers are about %99 satisfied with our rug cleaning, we know there is still room for higher end equipment, bigger shop and better methods. Lisa would refer to this as a simple "top side" cleaning. We offer to do the bottom side for 1/2 price which gets added to the price.

2. The average area rug to buy NEW in our area runs around $39 to $100 for a 5x7 synthetic. Around $300-$600 for a wool 8x10. Depending where
you buy it. At $3 a foot we would have to charge $105 to clean the 5x7 (plus tax, del, SG etc) and $240 (if we didnt charge more for wool) for the 8x10 (plus tax, del SG etc could run them around $300) This would include both sides where applicable.

Would you pay $105 plus $17.03 tax plus $20 p/u del plus $6 to SG comes to around $148.03 to clean your rug you bought for (avg) $49
Would you pay $240 plus $20 del/pu plus $12 SG plus $35.36 tax comes to $307.36 to clean your (avg) $400 8x10 wool area rug.

Thats right, at only $3 a foot you would be paying up to:

$148 to clean a rug you bought NEW for around $49
$307 to clean a rug you bought NEW for around $400

The REAL kicker is that Marketing Gurus try to tell me I can get $9 to $12 a foot! Hmm..

Well over $500 to clean a rug you paid $49 for...
Well over $1000 to clean a rug you paid $400 for... Yeah... right.


3. Our current rates keep our rug cleaning shop busy. Busy is good for business. Maybe that is why they call it "Busy-Ness". It gets people to make time to come to our shop, which leads to other services and regular loyal customers. We could think of our area rug cleaning along the same lines as the car cleaning and it can be a "loss leader" to get people in the door. These same customers bring us their rugs regularly as opposed to once in a lifetime because
the cleaning is affordable.

4. Our $ per hour seems right on target. I can vac and steam clean a 5x7 synthetic in about 10-15 mins. If I get $17.50 base cost, not including tax,del, SG etc lets round it out to avg $20 my price. That works out to $80/hr for me to clean it while I'm working in the shop. Seems good to me.
If i get an 8x10 Wool in, it might take 30 to 45 minutes to fully clean it. If I get my rate around $80 to clean it I am making well over $100/hr.
So what's the problem?

5. Our closest major competitor is probably Sears. They dont even clean them up here. They send them a 3 hour drive to Toronto to get cleaned. Customers have to wait up to 6 weeks to get their rugs back. Customers pay more than double what we charge for them to do this. This is why
we are getting most of the area rugs to clean in our area at our current rates.

6. Based on other local carpet cleaner's rates. My last employer in our area is considered a "high end, pricey" rug cleaner. They only charged
$1 a foot for wool rugs to clean. When we started this company we considered that when establishing our pricing.

In summary, I do believe we should consider a price increase next year for area rug cleaning, but we will rarely get the kind of rates that
I'm being told I can charge. It just doesnt make sense to the average person for reasons indicated above. Submersion cleaning I have already
bumped up because of the amount of work/chems/time involved I now charge $2 a foot for submersion bath.

[Matt Strader]

I will try to justify why we only charge .50-.75 as base price for cleaning area rugs, as I know most cleaners charge $2 and up.

1. Our method is probably more basic than most. We pre-vac, prespray, bonnet then extract with HWE. Wool gets an acidic topspray to help neutralize and ensure it dries bright without browning. Urine contaminated rugs get a saturation bath and those are $2 ft. We do not, as of yet have a rug badger, although we are planning on getting one when we can afford it, so a heavy oriental rug that is encrusted with sand, will most likely still have sand coming out of it when they get it back. Most high priced rug cleaners have huge workshops with equipment running into tens upon tens of thousands of dollars. Although our customers are about %99 satisfied with our rug cleaning, we know there is still room for higher end equipment, bigger shop and better methods. Lisa would refer to this as a simple "top side" cleaning. We offer to do the bottom side for 1/2 price which gets added to the price.

2. The average area rug to buy NEW in our area runs around $39 to $100 for a 5x7 synthetic. Around $300-$600 for a wool 8x10. Depending where
you buy it. At $3 a foot we would have to charge $105 to clean the 5x7 (plus tax, del, SG etc) and $240 (if we didnt charge more for wool) for the 8x10 (plus tax, del SG etc could run them around $300) This would include both sides where applicable.

Would you pay $105 plus $17.03 tax plus $20 p/u del plus $6 to SG comes to around $148.03 to clean your rug you bought for (avg) $49
Would you pay $240 plus $20 del/pu plus $12 SG plus $35.36 tax comes to $307.36 to clean your (avg) $400 8x10 wool area rug.

Thats right, at only $3 a foot you would be paying up to:

$148 to clean a rug you bought NEW for around $49
$307 to clean a rug you bought NEW for around $400

The REAL kicker is that Marketing Gurus try to tell me I can get $9 to $12 a foot! Hmm..

Well over $500 to clean a rug you paid $49 for...
Well over $1000 to clean a rug you paid $400 for... Yeah... right.


3. Our current rates keep our rug cleaning shop busy. Busy is good for business. Maybe that is why they call it "Busy-Ness". It gets people to make time to come to our shop, which leads to other services and regular loyal customers. We could think of our area rug cleaning along the same lines as the car cleaning and it can be a "loss leader" to get people in the door. These same customers bring us their rugs regularly as opposed to once in a lifetime because
the cleaning is affordable.

4. Our $ per hour seems right on target. I can vac and steam clean a 5x7 synthetic in about 10-15 mins. If I get $17.50 base cost, not including tax,del, SG etc lets round it out to avg $20 my price. That works out to $80/hr for me to clean it while I'm working in the shop. Seems good to me.
If i get an 8x10 Wool in, it might take 30 to 45 minutes to fully clean it. If I get my rate around $80 to clean it I am making well over $100/hr.
So what's the problem?

5. Our closest major competitor is probably Sears. They dont even clean them up here. They send them a 3 hour drive to Toronto to get cleaned. Customers have to wait up to 6 weeks to get their rugs back. Customers pay more than double what we charge for them to do this. This is why
we are getting most of the area rugs to clean in our area at our current rates.

6. Based on other local carpet cleaner's rates. My last employer in our area is considered a "high end, pricey" rug cleaner. They only charged
$1 a foot for wool rugs to clean. When we started this company we considered that when establishing our pricing.

In summary, I do believe we should consider a price increase next year for area rug cleaning, but we will rarely get the kind of rates that
I'm being told I can charge. It just doesnt make sense to the average person for reasons indicated above. Submersion cleaning I have already
bumped up because of the amount of work/chems/time involved I now charge $2 a foot for submersion bath.

Dude, where are you find rugs at $49 a pop? The cheapest I've seen is a few hundred all the way up to $20k. Are the bath mats?

[Richard Baldwin]

5x7 area rugs, at Home Depot, Zellers, Sears or Canadian tire. Basically any major dept store. Specialized flooring stores also have quite a selection but they sell them a bit higher.

Here are a few links to synthetic area rugs you can buy in my area:

Canadian Tire
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...mR!-1452466026

Walmart
http://www.walmart.ca/details?tabId=...&assetId=28918

Home Depot
Some 6x8 and 8x10 rugs here listed as per my local outlet
http://www.homedepot.ca/catalog/area...P_BuyCount%7C1

[Matt Strader]

Ok. Well these are all synthitic, I stated wool. I don't have a problem cleaning synthitic rugs, there is no reason for me to take those out of the house. I usually clean those things for free anyway!

[Richard Baldwin]

Absoloutely, the cheaper the rug, the easier it is to clean.