i think it would be advantageous for all of us that don't know pricing to be educated about it.

i mean, if i knew that for prospect X to replace 10,000 sq.ft. of heavily soiled carpet it would cost him $10,000 (made up figure), and my normal price would be say 20¢ per sq.ft. to restore that carpet, i am saving him $8,000!! (and alot of possible headaches)

if i knew how much i might save the prospect, even on the low end (if they bought cheap junk carpet), it MIGHT encourage me to raise my prices. and do so with the utmost confidence!

so how much is it to purchase and install commercial glue down (CGD) carpet?

i am sure there are many variables, but give us a low-end figure and a high-end figure.

thanx --- Derek.

Awesome question derek. I'm sorry i can't give you an answer but i just wanted to say that yes i agree that knowledge gives you power ,Confidence, versatility. I'm gonna to make a run right now and in the process i'm gonna attemp to get a ball park figure for us. thank you for raising that question!

Your Servant

Derek,

Have you been reading Jeffrey Fox books? If not you are doing what he calls "Doallarizing" as a selling technique. Basically working a formula to show the cost of the carpet and not cleaning for the life of the carpet vs. the cost of the carpet, cleaning and extending the life of the carpet to save the customer money.

In fact he will tell you to NOT tell them you are saving them money, rather you are MAKING them money by: A) Not replacing the carpet as often, B) Cleaner environment- more comfortable- therefore more sales, C) Less downtime, if carpet is replaced less often- more time to make sales.

Show them how they can clean AND actually have it be cheaper/more profitable- WALA customer for life.

This has been on my "To Do List" for a VERY long time. I was going to get info for three price ranges of Residential carpet and three prices ranges for Commercial carpet. From there it would be fairly simple to build an Excel spreadsheet to plug in cost per square foot for purchases, cost per square foot for cleaning, cleaning frequency, and carpet life spans to automatically "Dollarize".

We can work it together if you want then we can share with the gang.

Del Scrivner
Owner/Operator
Cowboy's Carpet Care

All you need to do is go to a reputable carpet retailer
and find out how much it is for a good commercial carpet they will have an
aproximate cost per sq ft for install also.

There are other factors involved with installing new carpet also.
We been doing that with clients for a while now, but I like to tell them they are keeping
X amount in the budget rather then tossing it out the window.

David

I was cleaning at a high end hotel where some of the carpeting was being replaced, and I bumped into an installer and asked him exactly that question - he said around $6 a sqft installed - this was REALLY nice carpet, custom made w/ medallions and all kinds of nice designs, so regular CGD I'm assuming would be cheaper...

Joe

i stopped in a local carpet store that sales carpet. i asked them the about the cost of laying some new carpet. they wrere too focused on trying to see how they can jack me up,couldn't get a direct answer. i've no time for that so i shook the spot.

Your Servant

humm, that sounds REAL high Joe, wonder if he was giving you a line? don't flooring retailers sell carpet by the sq. yard?

$6 sq.ft. would be like $54 per sq.yard. wouldn't it? or do i have the math wrong.

$6 x 9 = $54.



never read that book Del, sounds like a good read

thanx --- Derek.

Not real sure, but I thought it was by the lineal yard ??

I'm also not convinced that you could up your prices by saying you will save someone xxx amount of dollars by cleaning compared to replacing.

Cleaning will not give you a new carpet like..................new carpet??

I would rather go down the regular maintenance for appearance sake course, ie; by regular cleaning, your carpets will always look good when enyone enters your premises.

By regular maintenance, this will prolong the life of the carpet, which will make their accountant happy.

Cleaning is a tax deduction immediately.

New carpet is a Capital Purchase deduction, which is written off over xxx amount of years.

This will also give you added income, which will make your wife happy

How many times have we heard something like..."thanks for that job, I thought I was going to have to replace" ???

We all know, first impressions when entering someplace always count.

Many times Delia & I have walked into a restaurant (for instance), turned around, and walked right out again, purely because of the (un)clean state of the restaurant.

Interesting concept though.

Cheers,

Shorty.

I've seen the light, and changed my ways.

Several years ago someone (CRI?) changed carpet pricing from sq yard pricing to square foot pricing. Maybe they thought no one would notice and would think carpet was cheaper now. $54 per yard would not be expensive for high quality woven product with medallions and stuff such as would be used in hotel hallways. Room carpet is probably lower.

I think you can also watch ad's like for Lowe's and local carpet distributors for pricing. It depends on what people are laying down, and their philosophy. Do they wnat to keep the initial investment low, and change out their carpet, etc. every 5 years or so? Kind of a planned obsolescence? Where I used to work they had Milliken carpet modules on contract, and would hire in temp labor to lay it with Henry "peach" glue. Seemed to keep the cost of installation down. Of course the temp were "supervised" by one of the maintenance staff, and electrician I think. They generally preferred that to rolled good.

you can sell with features like maintenance, health, carpet life, etc...

BUT you can also add in the savings over new. now it won't work with every sale, some ppl are not looking to replace. but how many times do we come across prospects who say, "we were just talking about replacing...thanx anyways".

my biz is pretty new, and i am always out meeting ppl. i hear this ALOT more than i'd like to.

so this is 1 more excellent point we can bring to their attention. not to mention the hassle of replacing carpet in the commercial setting (down-time, etc...).

and how many of us or the lurkers watching charge a pitiable low rate. i know on some jobs i have, heck, i may be doing a 17,500 sq.ft. job in April that i bid at 11¢. i bid it last March and today would have bid it at 16¢...that's a differece of $850, all because i was too nervous for them to see such a high price.

yes i will still make $ at 11¢, but what is wrong with ALL of us in the industry raising our prices? ain't we still charging at rates that applied in the 1980's???

i'm just thinking that for some of us who didn't realize the high cost to replace (i hadn't a clue), that it might give us the confidence and courage to raise our prices whether it be 1¢ or 10¢.

we all win when this happens!

thanx --- Derek.

I agree with what your saying all the way. I think you are right in finding out wha replacement costs are. Be informed doesn't just make you "look" like you now what you are talking about but in fact you WILL know what you are talking about. Makes you a professional. And the right info at the right time could make the difference in a sale or not.

Derek, The company installing this carpet was a HUGE outfit out of Dalton, GA that only does big, custom jobs... I thought it had a name like millicon, or something like that...If you saw what this carpet looks like, $6 / ft sounds cheap!! Multi colored, with custom inlays, etc. I actually have a 3x5 piece of it in my garage to practice on...I heard it was in the $60,000 range to do this place, but that's not confirmed...

Joe

i stand corrected. man that's some serious dough!

now that i understand how much they $pend on carpet, getting these ppl to realize that regular maintenance is NECESSARY if they wanna $ave their investment seems even easier.

we gotta chat again some time Joe.

thanx --- Derek.

Maybe a Trade Guild with pricing indexed to cost of fuel, healthcare, inflation, and McDonald's value meals? People will think we are starting a union?