You Get What You Pay For

We have all lost contracts because someone came in at a lower price, and so today's post is dedicated to those clients who feel that a savings of a few dollars a month is well worth it.

One of my clients called me this week to look at a floor he had to strip. My client had lost the contract when his client built a new facility. And to save a few hundred dollars he chose another company to clean the facility. After 2 years the client realized he had made a mistake and called my client back in. The floors were among the worst floors I have ever seen.

  Remember these floors are 2 years old. Looked like there was 15-20 coats of wax and the strip job started here. We applied the first stripper at 6:1 with cold water and let it sit on the floor for 10 mins. The work was done in 8' X 8' sections using a fresh Emerald (hi-pro) pad. 

 This is after the first strip

After picking up solution we reapplied a second stripper which was just a little bit stronger. Dilution on this product was also 6:1 giving a 10 min dwell time and using a new emerald pad for every 8'X8' section.

 After the double strip.

Finally after spending 3 hours per room we were ready to wax the floors. Unfortunately still a little sealer but the wax job turned out beautiful.

This is the floor after 2 coats of Johnson High Millage.

The standard for stripping and waxing a floor that most companies go by is 500 sq/ft an hour, this floor we were doing about 200 sq/ft an hour. If you think that saving a few dollars a year is worth while think of the consequences. What should have taken 1 week and 3 pails of stripper is turning into a 3 week project and 6-8 pails of stripper. When adding the product and labour cost the 2 years of savings is now costing you. Not to add that for 2 years your floors did not look the way they should and your staff probably complained on a weekly basis.

And on a final note if you are the contractor that did this you have 2 choices. Get into another line of work we don't need you in the cleaning business. You give those hard working contractors a bad reputation that this industry is working hard at changing. Option 2 contact someone like me and get some training maybe then next time you bid you won't destroy the contract you had.

I love this business but do not put up with contractors who have no intention of learning how the clean properly. Cleaning and maintenance is not something you wake up one morning and decide to do. It takes years of hands on training and hard work to know what you are doing and be good at it.