Do any of you tab your chair, table legs after your done your jobs?

I know with HWE its the norm.

If so what kind of tabs do you use: plastic or foam blocks.

Thanks

heck yea!

some of the dry cleaning products claim if you use them you don't have to tab furniture, but i would still do it if i used those products, just in case.

i use plastic for smaller & lighter items, foam for larger & heavier items. but usually for me, smaller & lighter objects are already moved by the client. thus far i have been leaving those items where the client sets them (in other rooms etc...), so i most always use foam blocks.

thanx --- Derek.

It depends.. most time not.
I tell you why.

Encapsulation is a COMMERCIAL phenomenon.. not residential

That being said.. in just about all of my commercial accounts... the furniture has plastic over the bottoms of the legs.. so its not necessary to tab.

I try to leave my jobs as 'consumer friendly' as I can.

Not right or wrong.. just my way.



Steve Dobson
ProFloor
Custom Cleaning Services

Encapsulation is also a RESIDENTIAL phenom. I have been Film Forming my own two homes for over a year now. And have done over 700 homes the same way with zero complaints.I am still awaiting any studies done by CRI or the famous IICRC to dispell the use of Film Forming on residential carpet and furniture. Of course we use encap. on most all our COMMERCIAL. As far as tabbing furniture we use 4" square plastic or blue styrafoam blocks. We have always done it from our "truckmount" days and our customer/clients expect it.

I am just starting to work with OP. I'll be hard presed to skip tabs and blocks. Furniture stain can result in buying carpet.

I've been running Steam Way Powermatics since 93. I just saw my first demo of OP cleaning. I was impressed. There's no way the carpet would have looked any cleaner with HWE. I have noticed for years that spots and soil I couldn't get with HWE I could often get down and remove with a towel. Is there some soil you won't remove with OP. Sure. Is there soil you won't remove with HWE. Sure. Will you remove maximum soil by vacuuming, prespaying, scrubbing, extracting and post padding? Yes, but how much more soil for the time and effort. And there will still be soil you won't remove. A business decision has to be made, namely what price structure and what cleaning methods employed will allow me to develop a clientele that will pay me enough to make the profit margins I need to stay in business long term. Unfortunately many cleaners, especially those relatively new to the business have no idea what those margins are and instead are more concerned with equipment and cleaning philosophy.

David Van Briggle

David - you said it exactly right.

Right on Dave,
For the companies out there that think they can clean for a couple cents per foot will see very fast that it will not work. Not if you want to stay in this business for years.

Steve, right on about the plastic feet on some furniture, gotta love those.

David, nicely said. still trying to figure that margin out for myself without pricing myself right outta work as i've done in the past (residentially speaking).

thanx --- Derek.

I agree with what is said above.

But the key words.. "looks as good as HWE"

OP and VLM methods do look as good (on the surface),, its deep down that HWE rules the day.

I have always heard that they can get stuff with pads that they couldnt with HWE>. thats all operator error. Honestly. I use all the aforementioned methods. HWE will always be the best method to clean carpets. Given a technical and competent operator using all methods.
HWE most definitely has the least margin of error for success.
You can get away with alot more of you arent as competent a cleaner.. with VLM>

The key to HWE that hardly anybody does,, is mechanical agitation.
If you skip this step.. IMO and honestly, you are only 2/3 the cleaner and getting results accordingly.

The object to cleaning is when you pull out of the driveway to be able to say to yourself "I didnt leave anything on the table there. I did all that I could do"

If better is possible, good enuf never is"

Everybody can interpret that for themselves.
But to deliver the best cleaning on the planet, you must be able to sell the price. And thats what cleaners can't do.
So the settle for the lower to middle ground pricing scheme and deliever cleaning standards accordingly.

You get what you pay for.

Do you want to do 3-4 jobs perfectly right per day, or 6-7 to a lesser standard and get more money. Thats a personal decision.

no right or wrong.


Steve Dobson
ProFloor
Custom Cleaning Services

What is the best cleaning on the planet? If you vacuum, prespray, agitate, flush & extract thoroughly, and post pad are you leaving any soil in the carpet. Would you be providing even better cleaning if you came back the next day and did it all again? At some point the effort and expense in trying to remove the last bit of soil has such a diminshing return that no one in their right mind would pay for.

Regarding selling the price. How do you determine that price? Do we know what our Costs of Goods Sold percentage is? Do we know what it should be? Do we know what percentage of gross our labor is and what it should be? What is a reasonable percentage of net profit we are entitled to as a business owner. Can we take these figures and calculate what our fees should be to generate an hourly or daily amount of money that we need to allow us to acheive these targets? I have read comments from some who say they have never made a thousand dollars in a day. An owner operator may be able to make a living this way as long as his back holds up. When we structure our business according to accepted business models, it may surprise some to find that we need to make a thousand dollars a day very regularly to build a successful business. I suspect Ken Snow with Hagopian and other successful business men who happen to be in the carpet cleaning industry understand this better than we do.

That you MAY be in trouble.

An illustration- my son, a Certified Master Cleaner with 20 years experience, who now runs my business, was HWE, and saw that the legs of a sofa were a plastic something or other, so he did not tab.

The lady moved the sofa the next day and saw green spots under the legs and called him.

Too late. Nothing he could do would remove the green circles. He spent several hours over 3 days trying. Now he is on the hook for replacement of the carpet.

The problem is still pending- the lady won't go for inserts.

So.... learn his lesson without cost to you- TAB EVERYTHING!!

Gary

I know that commercial locations have less metal and wood legs. But we like to bring them because if we don't, what do we do with a 'few' wood stains and 'some' rust stains THAT THE CUSTOMER CALLS US THE NEXT DAY TO SAY WE CAUSED??

'WE WANTED YOU TO REMOVE STAINS, NOT ADD THEM!'

I don't think I could come up with a snappy answer that could make a customer happy in that scenario.

Bring 'em. Use 'em if you need to.