New Use for The Max

I wanted to give you an update of a project we have doing in the wilderness of the Oachita Mountains
of Oklahoma. We have been working in the loft of a lodge out in the piney woods there. The first picture shows us sanding down the wooden floor to bare wood and then sanding between the sanding sealer layer and the finish layers. We used the Max and a wire screen disk under it. These last two pictures show the finished floor. We did not use any kind of stain just a clear poly finish. I believe I posted pictures, in an earlier post, showing how badly stained and in need of refinishing the floor was when we started this project. I wanted to show you how it turned out in the final stages.

THE MAX RULES.

Actually the Challenger did the
rough sanding in the beginning
and the Max did this later sanding.
However, we could have used either machine for every step along the way in this project.

THE CHALLENGER RULES.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Carpet Cleaning for the Clergy

I got a phone call today from a lovely lady in New York, named Donna. She wanted to tell me a story about a cleaning job she completed recently with her Challenger Pad System. She had been called to clean a carpet in a church office area which was installed in the 60's or 70's. The area was, for some years, part of a nunnery but now was used for public offices by the church. Her most serious problem was a large ink stain in one open area. With a combination of Rug Restore, Orbit Natural, and frequently changing pads which were absorbing the stain, Challenger was able to remove the ink stain and Donna was ecstatic! She moved on from there to the rectory where the parish priest told her he had been advised by carpet cleaning professionals that the carpet was so stained it could not be saved and must be replaced. Donna decided to take a whack at it with her amazing Challenger Pad System, anyhow. The most serious problems in this area were the cat stains, of all descriptions, throughout the rectory. Watching Donna clean with her Challenger, one of the secretaries at the rectory wanted to try the machine. This lady was 67 years old and had never used an oscillating pad machine before but after a few minutes she did decided she did not want to turn the machine back to Donna because, as she described it: 'This machine is so much fun and the results so gratifying, I don't want to quit!'
Once again, Donna found that the Challenger was able to remove the stains in the carpet even though others had said the carpet could not be saved. When the parish priest came to inspect the cleaning job he declared it, "Amazing. Incredible. Please feel free to use us as a recommendation." In fact, he agreed to sign a glowing letter of reference for Donna's cleaning portfolio.
Donna told me her only regret was that her digital camera was not working and she was not
able to get before and after pictures of her efforts at the church. She figured, at the very least, the priest owed her big time for such an amazing cleaning job so that next time she went to confession he would be obligated to give her immediate absolution!
Cute story, but true! Thanks for reading with me,

Chris

How many sq. ft./hour can Challenger Clean?

Hi Chris,
You have asked me a couple of times re. how many sq. ft. per hour can the
Challenger do? I did a job yesterday for the first in a 6-story downtown
Boston condominium building. Each floor contained 950 s.f. of carpeting.
Since I was working alone, my first choice would have been to use my
Orbitec CX-20 (or a Challenger Max, if I had one). But access to the
building was difficult, both as far as even using my ramp to unload my
bigger machines, as well as getting equipment into the building itself
(many stairs; no ramp; no loading dock with elevator) So using my
standard Challenger was my only choice. It took me about 50 minutes to do
each floor, which works out to a rate of about 1150 s.f. per hour. And
this included doing my own spraying with a standard 2-gallon pump sprayer,
since my electric sprayer is on the fritz (Do eople still say "on the
fritz"?) All told, it was a job that grossed about $1100 in a day when
the actual work started at 9AM and finished at 4PM. Of that time,
probably about an hour was devoted to running outside to feed the parking
meter, buy coffee a couple of times, and toss down a small lunch. So
dollars-per-hour for each hour actually worked was about $185. The job
was billed at a rate of .17/sq. ft., and there were a dozen or so stairs
cleaned as well.

This particular building is managed my a property management company which
specializes in condominium buildings - as opposed to rental properties.
I got my first building from them a couple of years ago - as kind of a
test - when a condo owner in one of their buildings kept calling their
office saying how much better HER carpet looked after being cleaned by
Drysdale's than did the common area carpet, after being cleaned by whoever
was doing their work at that time. She was such a pain (to them) that
they finally gave me a shot. Now I think I have all of the buildings they
manage - about 15. One building alone - which is done twice per year -
grosses over $3000 each time I do it. It requires two days - one day
working alone, and a second day with a helper to assist me.

Mark D., Boston, MA