Here is what I have: Sanitaire vacuum conversion to full beater bar system. no bag attached Regular vac Cimex 19in Extractor (TM and unheated portable) Dedicated dry room, with fans and dehu. (But no pulley system yet) Lots of space Water Claw I do not have: Wash pit Any Chems I plan on getting some education on this. In the mean time, I have a few practice rugs that I've scooped out of the trash. So where is a good place to start? What are good solutions to use, and with what I have, what can I clean with?
Matt. You are very smart to start on some practice rugs. You can also get a very good supply of nasty rugs usually from charity thrift stores to clean as well and you wont have to worry if you muck up some in the process. some benifits of donating some rug cleaning to charity thrift stores is: -you get practice on serious challenge rugs that are often full of urine etc. -you are not going to have to buy someone a new rug if you do muck it up. -when you do improve the rug the charity makes more $$ -the charity will often want to publicly say thanks to you in their newsletter and sometimes even on their webiste, and of coarse this is very good marketing for you as the ppl that read their newsletters right through are their society members who of coarsre are you ideal client type and when they see that you have been so generous they will want to give you their rug care business! -the charity will often be able to give you a tax receipt.
Matt, I always encourage ppl to put together a marketing plan before investing any money in equipment. Do you have some sort of marketing plan planned yet?, if not give me a PM and I can help. I also insist that you get yourself to a hands-on, boots-on type of rug cleaning class asap. Barry, Paul Lucas, Nathan Koets and myself will be doing a workshop program in the middle of Feb in the DC area for some select ppl in the industy. Barry will be announcing the details on here very soon and it would be wonderful to see you there. For more resources to build your rug care profit center, go to this address and bookmark it. www.imaruglover.com
Tron the best vac to use if you are not ready for a RugBadger yet is a Sanitaire. Here is the link to the best model for you to use. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Sanitai...230689117077?pt=US_Vacuum&hash=item35b6249395 I will suggest that you try to find one with a Vibra 1 roller and have your local vac shop remove the brush strip so you have double beater bars. One thing to really watch for on these is the belt. They have to work very hard when on the back of a rug vibrating the rugs for hours and the belts very quickly warm up, streach and slip. When I used these vacs I always replaced the belt at the beginning of every day.
No offense but I'm ready to take over this industry. If rug badger is ready for me then good deal. I'm building the facility and business plan slowly while trying to grow my CC business and putting it on auto pilot. Btw thanks for personally calling me yesterday. I do appreciate good customer service.
Matt, Check out this article by Lisa Wagner. She wrote it a few months back. There could be a lot of useful information in it for you. http://www.rugchick.com/2011/04/rug-shop-set-up/
Sonny, I'm sorry that we missed you on Barry's Great NYC Rug!Lover tour,, hope you can join up with us on the next tour in DC for Feb
Frank - I get down that way once in a while (family in Monroe twsp). Once you are set up I would love to stop in when I am down there or even if you need help - give me an excuse to visit. Rug pit size - make an adjustable one with 3" PVC pipe for soaking urine damaged rugs. A wash floor is the way to go if possible. Sanataire vac is fine to start with. Chems - I just started playing with Chem max stuff - love the triple deod shampoo. Bridgepoint coming out with some new stuff and I think there is a dist over in Philly? I used masterblend shampoo for a while but always had trouble getting it flushed out of the rug. AND - read every post here! Good luck
Matt Dye Lock, Haitian Cotton Shampoo, and a wool chem. 4 4x4's and industrial rubber liner can make you a pit without a lot of expense till you can afford it. Vacuum is fine; just slow and easy. You know the rest. Technical stuff and extreme situation I would defienently defer to Rug Chick or an experienced type rug shop that handles certain extreme situations.
if you want to go all out on a wash pit have one poured out of concrete, but the adjustable wooden slotted 2x6 frame is what we all started with,covered with a pond liner.the slots allow the size to be adjusted for differant rugs, so you dont have to use 100 gallons to wash a small rug.
Sorry - thought Frank Digi started the thread - now Matt has to fly me down to FL as I offered to help!
I'm working on our pit in a corner of the shop now. Thinking 12'x15' cutting in drains in the slab and plumbing them out the back. Sloping the floor a couple inches, and lining the perimeter of the pit with L block, I saw a granite counter top company do this for there wet saw cutting area. I plan on posting pics as it progresses. I'm very open to ideas and suggestions.
Tron - sounds like a nice set up. I had something similar in my old place but had sump pumps in the corners in the low spots. They move water really fast!
Matt - be careful with the Cimex if it's heavy - you can end up with pile distortion if its a heavier unit, even with the soft brushes. A lot of plants use floor machines because you are around 60 lbs of weight instead of 100+. I do like the Cimex - but if you are not using a lot of water in a pit, or when you graduate up to a real wash floor, it can have problems. Whatever size pit you choose (our wash floor is 20 ft by 25 ft), see if you can get a slight incline, it will help with pump out and water exchanges. That rug shop post that Frank mentioned literally lists everything you need to think about, and to plan for, in setting up the plant. But above all else you need to make sure you ENJOY rug cleaning - because if you do not, there are easier ways to make the money. For example, subcontracting to a rug plant, and marking it up $1 or so, and literally being paid to transport it to a facility that does higher volume washing. But if you do enjoy rugs, it's a fun and fulfilling business. But you will work your ass off. =) In December Jim Pemberton and I are picking our next group of Textile Pros to work with over 6 months in how to get from zero to hero in the rug world. If you get on my Rug Chick blog list you will get the notice of the opening for applications first. We are currently working with 40 companies that we've been training with since August, and we are traveling to Florida this week for hands-on with 20 of them (we were in PA a couple weeks ago with the other 20). I just put up a post on tufted rugs, which we are seeing more and more of (unfortunately) in our world. TUFTED RUG POST => Rugs with material on the back. When you are on the site, if you opt in for the Rug Disasters report on the right side of the main page, that gets you on my list if you are not already on it. Happy Rug Cleaning! Lisa
From everything I have seen Jim and Lisa offer a great service to rug washers. I always make it a point to recommend them. Best wishes, Barry O'Connell http://www.SpongoBongo.com
I had the vacuum already. The brush bar was totally exchanged for a beater bar. There is a guy at Jon-Don that knows what parts you'd need, and I can not think of his name right now. Thanks. I am only marketing to my current client base. The reason? I used to sub them out and had two companies ruin rugs. One was fixed, the other was not. That one just happen to be a $40k wool silk blend from fabrica. So I am not letting anyone make me look like a bad guy anymore. If its gonna happen it's going to be because of my own hand. I've read this. It's going to be a lot nicer here, than up there for the next few months. We have extra room at the house. Although, were pretty boring in our off time (which is not that often) And a big thanks to everyone. I've put my first order for some cleaning chems, just a moment ago.
