How many of you do vlm everything?

[msc1917]

I'm just curious how many of you use VLM for your residential market exclusively. Ive encapped commercial plenty of times but I see allot of you have some really awesome before after residential photos and a few of you - judging by your websites- seem to exclusively do vlm in residential. I have a butler TM and It works but I am not in love with the 13,000 a year gas bill.
So, can I (with a little practice) park my butler and replace my steam cleaning system with vlm?

[Ed E]

I run all my resi accounts using vlm/pad-cap. I have a porty which I drag out when I have to, but I only use it in certain areas that require rinsing. Never the whole house. With the available tools (chemistry, mf bonnets, op machines), I personally see no reason to run HWE as a primary cleaning method.

[drytouch]

I do all vlm for residential.

But I will say this--I used to work for a CD franchise that had a Butler truck grandfathered into its fleet.

I didn't have to pay the gas bill, but the Butler was a serious money maker because it was so quick and easy to do carpet/tile combo jobs.

The Butler has so much heat and power it cut thru tile like hot butter and the upsell was a win-win.

I always made more money driving the Butler truck--but as I say, I didn't put the gas in it.

[CleanItGreen]

I do vlm and the only time I pull out the potty is either a)customer has bad pet urine issues and I decide to use a rinse that needs extracting or b)I'm cleaning upholstery. B wont change but based on the tips I've read here lately a won't be occurring much if at all in the future.

[Tom Ingram]

I'm interested in switching to VLM. Anyone here close to KY so I can do a ride a long?


What A Difference - Carpet & Tile Cleaning - Lexington KY
www.whatadifferenceky.com

[cleancorp]

I am exclusively vlm and don't even own a portable aside from a durrmaid upholstery cleaner, but I never use it either. I even do upholstery vlm.

[OXIGREENGUY]

I am. I cap everything. If the soil is really bad then I will run my Certified Pile Lifter over it and prep it and then BAM it's capped into submission. Pet urine is drenched in enzyme mixed with Odorcide and away it goes. I BrushPro the resi and Cimex the Commercial. If I have an empty resi I will also use the Cimex. BTW: I only use the stiff bristles with the Cimex. For me they work better than the pads and last for ever.

[CleanItGreen]

What difference did you see between using pads vs brushes on cimex? I like the idea of brushes but I like being able to see how dirty the pads are when I'm done.

[OXIGREENGUY]

The brushed do a much better job lifting the pile back up. Say good bye to traffic lanes. The brushes out perform the pads also. If soil is extreme and using the Certified Pile Lifter still wont get you to were it can be capped yet. I will at that point bring in my Minute Man CRB and flush and extract the traffic lanes with that. The MM is designed for cleaning tile and retrieving the cleaning solution at the same time. I have found it works extremely well flushing CGD heavily soiled carpet. Whats even better is it's normally on the job doing tile so it saves bring in a porty.

[Derek]

depends which pads you are referring to. my brushes never outperformed some pads...like the Max pads for instance. different folks, different strokes.

[OXIGREENGUY]

I'm talking about the white pads. But there isn't a pad out there that will last as long as stiff bristles.