79% dry soil in the carpet. This is a old "Hoover vac) study that makes their vacuums look good. When is the CRI or the ICCRC going to do a up to date study? Now that leaves 21% of soil for us to remove and we know we can never get it back to 100% but maybe back to 90%. So my customer is paying me to remove 11% of the soil in their carpets. I find that easy to do and I do that every day and I cannot handle all the customers we have since going VLM. At the first VLMfest in Macon, I was the only one there with a truckmount. I have owned 8 truckmounts. I know truckmounts, and believe me VLM done right can outclean them all day long, easier, faster and cheaper. One of the fellows at that meeting is getting ready to buy his first truckmount and I have not tried to discourage him. He will find out on his own. I can clean faster by myself today than we could dual wand with a truckmount. We are now doing dual and triple encapping, talk about fast (8000 square feet an hour!) is very do-able. At our current (reduced price) that is over $1000.00 an hour. We just finished a 16740 square foot job in exactly 2 hours and 10 minutes. A two level office building with lots of wide hallways. That is my favorite cleaning job and I try to get as many as possible.This post is IMHO

Ray,

You always have been a forward thinking fella! That's why I respect you so much when it comes to business. Yer a wise ol' Ray. Way to go with your business! Hey, when are you ever gonna slow down and retire? When do you get to enjoy that lake house of yours?

Ray, I think the reason that nobody has challenged the old Hoover statistics ever since they were first published back in the 50's is because those numbers are still considered to be reasonably accurate.

I firmly believe that if those numbers weren't in the ballpark, they would have been challenged and thrown out of court a long time ago. Think about it for a moment. Carpet is mostly loose fiber (fluff). Dry soil that surrounds the loose fiber would logically comprise a much large number. Somewhere in the range of 79% would seem reasonable.

Then when we think of what can stick to the fiber; when we consider the binder soils; what do we have? How much "sticky" can the fiber hold. The Hoover number of around 21% seems like a fair number to me.

I think the reason those numbers are still taught in the IICRC classes as fact, is because they're reasonably accurate.

Keep up the good work with your commercial business there Ray! And if ya end up with too much moolah you can always send some down to your ol' pal in Florida.





Rick Gelinas
encapman

Hey rambo, what do you mean by "double or triple encap"; does that mean 2-3 machines running at the same time?

Thanks!

Joe

Does that include set up, pre-vac, and pack up, or just clean time?

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

Thanks Rick, If I send you any moola, you will have to send machines or chemicals (I meant cleaning solutions) LOL. 2 hrs and 10 min is actual clean time only. When I say triple, I mean 3 encapping machines going at the same time.