I am looking for feedback from fellow cleaners as to tools recommendations. I added carpet cleaning to my commercial cleaning business this past January and it quickly became over 50% of my business.

I do about 90% commercial work with limited residential to referrals of the commercial customers. The majority is restaurants and hotels/rental homes/condos with the balance in offices/churches. I am using the Cimex supplemented with an Oreck XL for edges & stairs.

I have a cold water portable and have tried a wand for impacted areas in restaurants. I am not a good wand operator and honestly can't see how someone can operate one of those for hours.

I am looking for what should be the next tool in the carpet part of my business which would help the commercial side and also give benefits to the residential.

I am wondering if a CRB or OP would be useful?? How would it be useful?

I am thinking a Steamin Demon would be a good option with the XL version winning over the Classic. This has been mentioned as restoration work and I am wondering if you market that service different and charge differently than when you just encap.

Considering wicking, would you normally clean with the SD then put on fans and then encap before leaving?

As you can see I am probing and wondering how to best grow my business. Any information you are willing to share would be helpful.

Thanks so much, David Hansen

www.LakeshoreDeepClean.com

IMO if you already have a cimex you have one of the best machines for commerical work. Also if you have a porty maybe add a rotovac power wand or the 360i, i've used both and they work really well. A orbot or a op machine can be used on residential and it could be used to clean T&G stripping etc. The SD is limited IMO. Good luck on your choice, I hope this helps.

I am in the same situation. I am 100% commercial at the moment, two Cimex, buffers, vacuums, etc......
I also own a local maid company and the requests are coming in for me to clean residential, they are a captive audience!!
The only thing I am adding is a portable HWE, some of the apartments are small and three floors up. I can use the cimex but I think the addtion of the HWE will give me all the weapons to get started in residential. When you look at doing 2-3 bedrooms, living room, family room, the wand is not that big of a deal, and its another weapon in the arsonal.
I also want the HWE for removing salt from the vestibule entrances at my commercial locations, flooding with cold water just does not give me the same finished product as a HWE. I rented a HWE and found it really helped in that process.
Rick always says each type of cleaning has its place and time in the overall arsonal we take into these jobs, commercial or residential.
I have a mid sized HWE on order, I will have to practice on some friends homes and ask advice on the boards, etc and keep learning.
Thats just my 2 cents worth of advice, and it may not be worth 2 cents.

I have had Steamin Demons for a long time now (over 11 years)
if you have a Cimex, CBM or a Rotary machine Demon will flush the heck out of a carpet, my next choice for a portable would be a Cross American Jaguar 6.6

David

i would like to know the pros and cons on Jaguar 6.6 portable carpet cleaning machine before investing into it. Thanks

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1655 Makaloa st.
Honolulu, HI 96814