Tile Cleaning with Challenger

Mark, in Boston, sent me this email from his Challenger Forum discussion.

"I did a job yesterday consisting of a ceramic tile with grout floor, and a stone with grout floor, in the same house. I used my Challenger with Tile and Grout Brush, and touched up some limited areas of still grey grout lines quickly with a spray bottle of hot water, a grout brush (hand brush) and a small stair pad to absorb the little bit of liquid soil produced by this part of the job. The tile and stone portion of my work at this house took about three hours, and was worth just under $400 of the $645 total invoice. (The other work was a 12' x 15' oriental rug (at $0.95/s.f.) and 10 dining room chairs (at $8.50 each). Total job time: approximately 5 hours."

I get lots of questions about tile and grout cleaning, so I wanted to include this professional cleaning expert's experience. It is always helpful to know how long a job takes, how much money is made, and how the job was priced for the invoice. I hope this helps you.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

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

Eliminate Paint Stains --Again

Well this time the paint stains are in MY house. I was not very happy about it, but I found jet black Rustoleum paint dripped across the rug in my foyer. Somehow it was overlooked all day and found in the evening when the lights came on in the front hall. Below see the paint on the area rug when the problem was discovered. Then see the picture of the same area rug after the Challenger completely removed the problem. The third picture shows a larger area of the rug to see the paint is truly gone, Gone, GONE! Thanks for reading with me, Chris.

Challenger Eliminates Paint Stains

We recently bought a duplex in our hometown. On one side of the duplex, the previous owners had repainted before their last renters had moved in six months ago. When we did a walk-through of that unit we felt quite certain we would need to recarpet. The previous owners had spilled paint in the master bedroom and hall way and had left spots as large as outdoor trash can lids!

What a mess!

The renters had attempted to clean the mess up, but had been unable to do more than push some of it deeper into the carpet fibers. Six months after the fact we came along with our Challenger and Orbit Natural... and the dried paint disappeared from the carpet as though it had never been there. It was amazing! It even amazed us!

Large dried paint stains. Gone in a heartbeat. Who would have guessed?

Challenger to the rescue.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris

Challenger Takes a Break

I have been justifiably chided for not blogging in a very long time. Mending my ways is on my to-do list now so you should see some progress very soon. Meanwhile I wanted to share one reason why I have been silent for so long. We have four boys and three have been married for some time. The youngest and last of the boys tied the knot this past weekend. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL in a condo right on the beach. (He says it is a tough life, but someone has to do it!) Our oldest son lives about two blocks away with his lovely wife and three sons. Both boys are computer engineers and life is GOOD. I am posting a couple of pictures so you can see what a lucky guy this young man is to find his lovely Debbi. In the second picture Debbi is singing a song to Greg at the reception, "My Guy," I think is the name.

Thanks for reading with me,
Chris