Go Fast!

[TheCleaningDude]

Something is wrong with me....(I gripe about this all the time, so please forgive me....)

As much as I try, I simply cannot get resi jobs done as fast as I'd like. Here's how it went today:

12:00pm - Arrived at job with vacuum in hand, walked the home (move out, repeat customer) agreed on price.

12:15pm - Started to vacuum entire upstairs. Place was hit and miss in terms of condition, needed pre-vac regardless. Job consisted of upstairs, stairs and one small hall downstairs.

12:40pm - Done vacuuming, go to van to mix chems and start pre-spray

12:55pm - Half of upstairs pre-sprayed, back to van to get Orbot, pads, drop cloth, rag bag, stair tool, etc while chem dwells.

1:10pm - Everything lugged upstairs. Start padding.

1:35pm - First two rooms and main hallway padded. Pre-srpay loft (big loft), small hall and master bedroom. Dwell while I move machine over, set up, etc.

2:10pm - Master, loft, top landing all cleaned. Entire upstairs cleaned

2:35pm - Post vacced etire upstairs. Run cords for vac and multi sprayer down stairs along with pads and rag bag.

2:55pm - Stairs vacced (trashed)

3:05pm - Stairs pre-srpayed

3:25pm - Orbot landings (Oreck would not work, they were too rough)

3:50pm - Used Orbiter on the rest of the steps. Stairs complete

4:00pm - Vacced, pre-sprayed small hall downstairs

4:15pm - Cleaned and post vacced.

4:30pm - Collected payment, rolling everything to the van.

Done - finally. Upstairs was probably about 800 - 900 sq. ft. (closer to 900 I think), 16 steps with two landings midway.

Now in fairness, I did have a couple of phone calls and I had to move the van for the gardener and little things like that. So maybe 15 minutes wasted. The rest is accurate.

Lots of VLM'ers say they can bang this out in way less time.

Tell me how. I want to save time!

Here's an idea of how the carpet looked. Was like this in most, but not all areas:

[MikeB]

Damon, so about 4 hrs for 900 sq ft up and a hall down. 16 steps with 2 landings.
Depending on how difficult the actual cleaning was that's maybe an hour more than I probably would have taken.
But stairs up and down , landings , trips up and down with vac , cords, buckets , back and forth to truck , mixing chems.
All kills time.
I try to have chems mixed and ready unless I'm not sure what ill be using ( new customer) and try to be as efficient as possible regarding trips in and out and up and down stairs. But I hear ya. It drives me nuts too. I'm very efficiency minded so I have to tell myself to relax.
If its a 400-500 dollar job and takes me 5-6 hours I'm still happy. Good $ for a days work. But if its a 129 $ job and takes 2 hours or more ..... That's irritating !!

[Rob D]

Most of my jobs are 2-3 hours 120-250. I work at a quality snail pace since I herniated some discs

[Derek]

idk Damon, sounds good. the only thing i wonder is if you are waiting at all during dwell time??

sounds like you pre-vac'ed the whole upstairs??

what i do is vac a room, then prespray immediately & set timer on cell phone for 10-14 minutes depending on soil level. then i begin va'cing next room/area and then get equipment / pads ready. then empty dust cup on vac, then timer goes off. i now prespray the 2nd area i prevac'ed & set timer again. and then go OP the 1st area. then if i have time i start pre-vac'ing the 3rd room/area....etc...

[ebarnett]

I don't have a ton of experience with vlm as I'm a recent convert, but I

#1 - take the vacuum to the top and vacuum everything, stairs and all to the bottom.
#2 - lug the orbot up the steps along with 2 bottles of spotters. Jug on sprayborg already premixed and ready to go (punch or hydrox good options)
#3 - prespot any areas with a general spotter (encap spot)
#4 - using a fiberpad, and sprayborg, prespray and scrub it in at the same time (i believe this is superior to just a surface prespray)
#5 - check for any remaining spots and hit them again, this time with a spot type specific spotter or hydrogen peroxide spotter.
#6 - change to a microbeast or superzorb pad and extract and dry. No more solution being applied here.
#7 - depending on carpet type, postvac. The orbot does not cause the "swirls" all that bad on many carpets. So depending on how distracting you think those lines are you can groom the carpet accordingly.

Note on #4 : if the carpet is in good shape and fairly clean, I would just take the orbot once over with the sprayborg and microbeast . Of course making a dry pass or two. And skip #5 and # 6

Anyway that is my two cents. The orbot with onboard sprayer has been saving me some time and getting really good results. Ive only done a few jobs with it since I just recently got the machine, but im averaging between $75 and $100 dollars per hour with it, which is good enough for me.

[MikeB]

My system is pretty much the same as Derek's as far as vac and timing pre spray.

[rlord]

First good job on that carpet!
I always had the same complaint, to much time to do residential job and never could set up a good route the way the jobs would come in.

Two things helped me.
I'd mix all my jugs of prespray the night before (had six two gallon jugs for multisprayer) and got a cart that would carry all my spotters, uph tool , spray bottles ,towels, etc. Pull up to the house unload cart and vacuum, take to front steps. Ring door bell leave stuff on front steps, after talking to customer vacuum everything, take vacuum to truck get machine and back in to prespray and clean. Groom each room when complete have customer (if possible ) inspect each floor when complete (so I wouldn't have to drag machine back up or down stairs). Get check , take machine to van, back to front steps for cart and vac and leave.

When I could find someone out of work or something I'd pay them to be my helper even though they weren't cleaners the ability to have them get me stuff, mix more chems or be loading up the truck while I was getting the check was huge. Today even though a lot of my commercial jobs I could easily do myself I always, if possible take a helper. It just makes you more than twice as effective.

[David-Hebert]

If you are complaining about taking to much time I have to think you are not making the money per hour you need to?

Simple answer is to raise your prices if you feel you have your system down

[Lefty724]

When working solo, I work the same as Derek when doing VLM.

If I am using HWE, then I will spray down the whole house, then setup vacuum hoses, then extract.....

I think if you are busy enough for it, get part time tech (again)? It's amazing how much another set of hands, eyes, feet help you out during a work day.

With a helper/tech, your times will cut in half if not more? Also, while I'm on the phone, my tech can run the wand/op machine so this also helps tremendously!

[TheCleaningDude]

I'm explicitly complaining about the time I'm taking. If I got the jobs done faster, yes hourly would be higher.

Single story jobs I can do reasonably quick. It's the two story stuff that kills me.

I take on average an hour too long, imo.

If you are complaining about taking to much time I have to think you are not making the money per hour you need to?

Simple answer is to raise your prices if you feel you have your system down

[encapman]

Best way to work faster...

[Derek]

lol true^^

i dislike resi because it is str8 up harder work!! i sweat like a pig, i don't like sweating anymore!

give me CGD all day every day!

but since i don't have that many clients yet, resi pays the bills and it is GREAT $ after all

not as great, but still great


Damon let us know if the HWE and / or CRB speed things up for you.

perhaps a CRB prescrub can eliminate the dwell time and speed things up?? that's what i am thinking of trying.

[TheCleaningDude]

Perhaps.

What I am really wondering is if the CRB will let me skip the pre and post vac.

Dwell, imo, is not the time killer, it's the pre and post work that adds time....

lol true^^

i dislike resi because it is str8 up harder work!! i sweat like a pig, i don't like sweating anymore!

give me CGD all day every day!

but since i don't have that many clients yet, resi pays the bills and it is GREAT $ after all

not as great, but still great


Damon let us know if the HWE and / or CRB speed things up for you.

perhaps a CRB prescrub can eliminate the dwell time and speed things up?? that's what i am thinking of trying.

[MikeB]

Damon, I'm certainly no expert in cc but I made a good living for 25 plus years as a flat rate dealership service tech. The only way you make it in that field is efficiency. So I have some expertise there. Saving actual steps and redundant movements is the key!
Each time you're on a job just try to calmly note things that you could do more efficiently. Simple things that add up will make a big difference. When you get a "system" figured out for each task, stick to it so each task is without much conscious effort and without any redundant movements.
Doing things the same way all the time and tools organized ( I could grab any tool from my toolbox at work blindfolded) will make a huge difference.

[encapman]

I concur! Excellent advice from Mike there.

I read the E-Myth a long time ago.
SYSTEMATIZE EVERYTHING!

No great organization would be great, if it weren't for built-in systems. Well planned systems can help any business to run efficiently. I've employed the idea of "systems" in my cleaning business, and also in what we do at Excellent Supply.

Build simple systems that you - and eventually an employee can follow. A simple to follow step by step set of instructions will help you to produce consistently great results in the most efficient way possible.