I hate it

Hello All,
I hate cleaning upholstery with a pation never liked it never will it takes
me almost 2 hours to do a couch and chair
BUT (and thats a big but) it all pays the bills.
carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning go hand in hand if my clint wants
there furniture done also and i say "sorry i dont do that" next time they
will find someone else that will do both.
alot of times the client has to take off work or get off work early to be at
home so you can do your service, wich means they are not only paying
you for your time bt they are loosing money for missing work or other
things they would normally be doing in there daily life.
i charge $15 a LF it works out pretty good i get paid good for the time it
takes to do the job plus i have a happy client that is going to call me back
again and refer me to others wich is nice because i give referal discounts.
the company i sub for charges $20 a LF.
so you see it may be time consuming and your hand and rist may get a
little sore but you really bennifit in the long run.

would you want to take your car in for a oil change and the guy says ya
we can change your oil but we dont change the filter because its a hassle
to stock all the diffrent filters i bet next time you would go somewhere
that does both

Chris

Edited by cleencarpet

I seem to have more upholstery work in the winter. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't.   

I don't hate cleaning upholstery, and here's why...I generally make $100+ per hour and my clients are happy with my work.  First, you do need to be efficient and skilled, then your pricing must reflect the cost of doing business.  It should take you  1-11/2 hours to clean a sofa, loveseat and chair.  While you can shave off a few minutes on the sides and back, the only way to get a whole lot faster is to reduce the quality of the job.  So, either offer a lower quality service and deal with the complaints, or charge more.  Depending on fabric content and construction, a skilled uph. cleaner should be getting around $13 to $17 a linear foot.  Yeah, there are plenty of guys where I am that say they'll do a sofa, loveseat and chair for $60 bucks or whatever...who cares...charge what you need to to make a healthy profit, offer your clients an excellent service - and you'll begin to enjoy cleaning the stuff too.  Good luck!   By the way, yes, occasionally on a synthetic, lightly soiled, no loose back cushion (herculon type) sofa one can get good results in 20-30 minutes cleaning time with no wasted motions, but after specializing in uph cleaning for 21 years...I agree, it is pushing the time thing a bit, cause while you may be covering every square inch of fabric, the amount of soil extracted is reduced as the speed of the tool is increased.  Thats just plain physics.

Edited by Abettercc

Nice prices doug. Too much comp in my area for them high prices. You would starve here.

58.95 for a couch
46.95 for loveseat
30.00 recliner

Haven't changed these prices for probably 10 years but some think it's
too high . So I say well it's your decision, but we do clean 100% of the
fabric and it is time consuming to do quality work.

At these rates I am below my 75.00 per hour goal so I really don't care to
push upholstery unless the consumer is willing to pay the price. I doubt if
they get a competitor to come in behind me to save a dollar. They just
don't have them done. IMO

Dan: We tell people to take their cars to the car detailing places. But when we do a auto we do carpets and seats only useally if is a clients car. We have gone to car lots $75 to $100 takes about 1/2 and hr. per car. We do more airplanes, boats and rv's cars are a waste of time.

Edited by doug

Dan:  I am not sure if thet is a good thing for you.  Don't be lured to the dark side.