I need help with some pricing.

I got a call from one of my regular customers. He has a rental that the tenant got locked out and decided to break the window to unlock the door. Well he got cut up pretty good and got a lot of blood on the door. Very little was on the carpet. I went over and cleaned it up for him. Now I have to decide on what I am going to charge him. It took me about 1 hour, wiped everything that had blood down with peroxide and cleaned the set of stairs going down to the apartment. 
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Regular customer?
About an hours time?

I guess it depends on the tennant for me. Is this guy healthy or did you have to clean up for a guy with blood issues (hep-c for example)? The carpet is what you do so I would change the same as normal to clean the stained steps, but the walls is into another field.

Cleaning the blood of a healthy person would rate your normall $100 / hr. plus an exposure premium in my opinion, but if there is even a slight hint of infection involved.....deal changes greatly!

You just entered a hazmat clean up projects. I don't want to be like most you will find giving advice about this topic.

I will say that you put yourself in a very dangerous situation, it "you" that is most important doing jobs like this, not those who you are doing work for.

Just make sure you take every effort to project yourself from exposure from blood borne pathogens.

Robs, can tell ya first hand it's tough loosing someone to hazmat clean up exposure.

Amen to that.

Just curious, but why didn't the tennant clean up the door and wall? That would have been the logical conclusion to this problem and then you cleaning up the stairs.

Did I miss something??

First off, I just really hope you were wearing rubber gloves (even better double or triple gloved), and were very careful at the very min for your own safety/protection.

And yea, as already pretty much already mentioned, price would depend a lot on the customer and what your biz relation is with them.  But the way I see it is, you probably are going to save therm a ton of money by doing this for them and sparing them the cost of a hazmat cleaning job.  A Couple-three hundred I would think would be overly fair pricing, and would most likely charge more than that.

Be Careful!!  

milspec6 wrote:Just curious, but why didn't the tennant clean up the door and wall?  That would have been the logical conclusion to this problem and then you cleaning up the stairs.

Did I miss something??

Great question!!  

And that would be my first question to them, if they balk at your price!   

Because the person probably felt it wasn't his falt for having to break in  the window, they think its the owners falt and they should have to clean it up. Probably gonna send him a bill for the bandaids and vodka he ended up using too. People discuss me..
At least he told you.. I got called for a job and noticed a big hole cut out in the carpet, when I get done I asked what the big hole was for.. wait for it... "oh, my friend committed suicide in that room and the company that came out and cleaned the walls and stuff cut the really bad piece out"........................................................

milspec6 wrote:Just curious, but why didn't the tennant clean up the door and wall?  That would have been the logical conclusion to this problem and then you cleaning up the stairs.

Did I miss something??

The tenant is still sitting in a jail cell until Monday morning when he can talk to the judge. I did have all the proper PPE on and I have had my Hepatitis B shots with in the last 4 years and have been trained in the blood borne pathogen (that has been abut 5 years ago. and all the material used in the clean up was disposed of properly at the local heath clinic.

Well, that would hinder someone from cleaning up his own mess wouldn't it  

We weren't picking on you, just concerned. When I was still working in the prisons, I must have been bathed in blood from stab wounds, shootings, suicide attempts, escapes, etc. at least a dozen times without gloves....youthful invincibility made me jump right in without thinking safety. Luckily, I never contracted anything, but I fear for others who expose themselves.

You knew what you were doing and took all the steps necessary...maybe even more than I would have with the local clinic for disposal, so all is good. I guess the issue of pricing then should be answered by your own posting above. You cleaned up blood from a scumbag (risky exposure), you had the training / expertise, and you disposed of safely. Sounds to me like a haz-mat job....I used to get $300 per hour for that.

Final Tally: Normal rate for cleaning stairs ($2 - $3 each) plus blood clean-up; $300 per hour rate on the walls; and disposal costs.....sounds like $250 to $300.

Reminds me of the old story about the electrician who was called to the GM plant to solve an issue that kept causing the assembly line to shut down. The electrician showed up, spent 2 minutes to re-set a breaker, and chaged them $1000. GM protested and asked how can 2 minutes rate so much of a fee to which the electrician replied that what he did was only about $20, the rest of his bill is for his knowledge and experience which has cost him a fortune to acquire.

You spent an hour pretty much wiping down a wall and cleaning a few stairs, but it was you knowledge and willingness to risk exposure that costs the extra money. Don't let him off easy....he didn't want to clean it himself did he?

All great advice, $200-$300 sounds good, these guys know a lot more about it than me, but that sounds adequate, If the landlord gives you any grief let him know all of this great info and your training.

"When I was still working in the prisons, I must have been bathed in blood from stab wounds, shootings, suicide attempts, escapes, etc. at least a dozen times without gloves....youthful invincibility made me jump right in without thinking safety. Luckily, I never contracted anything, but I fear for others who expose themselves."

Rob, you keep surprising me with your past, where else have you worked in the past ? CIA ? KGB ? Secret service ?

dp1 wrote:"When I was still working in the prisons, I must have been bathed in blood from stab wounds, shootings, suicide attempts, escapes, etc. at least a dozen times without gloves....youthful invincibility made me jump right in without thinking safety. Luckily, I never contracted anything, but I fear for others who expose themselves."

Rob, you keep surprising me with your past, where else have you worked in the past ? CIA ? KGB ? Secret service ?

If you must know, is it worth you life?.....Is it Punk?!~?   

dp1 wrote:"When I was still working in the prisons, I must have been bathed in blood from stab wounds, shootings, suicide attempts, escapes, etc. at least a dozen times without gloves....youthful invincibility made me jump right in without thinking safety. Luckily, I never contracted anything, but I fear for others who expose themselves."

Rob, you keep surprising me with your past, where else have you worked in the past ? CIA ? KGB ? Secret service ?

I have been around the block and around the world...never could stay with anything very long. Let's see....

1. State Prison System (officer, prison transports, tac team)
2. Stand-up comic and comedy writer up and down the East coast
3. Wrote a column for 4 newspapers for about 6 months (small town stuff)
4. Security escort for a former Nebraska Governor and Prime Minister of Norway for short stints
5. Temp. loan to DEA after Desert Storm
6. Incorrectly identified as Secret Service during the NYC Marathon after 9/11 by the local news
7. Armed Security Responder for Nuclear Power Plant and Root Cause Analyst for the Department.
8. Built surfboards outside a bar called the Surf Club in San Diego for a Summer
9. Water Chemist / Purifier and later NBC Chief / Arctic Warfare Instructor with the Marines
10. Once chased the Commandant of the Marine Corps off the drill field by starting a wave in the stands
11. Of course, O/O of my little Cleaning Enterprise

Some day, I will figure out what I am supposed to really be doing, but at least it has been interesting so far  

Normal rate plus a nice healthy premium added due to the obvious risks, extra precautions, and extra work like post-sanitization of all your exposed equipment.

Dealing with the hazards of such a cleanup gives you all the leverage you need to legitimize a premium fee if questioned in any way.

Make sure you invoice conveys all that was involved, and then some.

I would have told them to get someone to clean it up in general first then ill come steam the carpets just my opinion.

same thing I tell people when they call with houses that are horder move outs, they dont want to pay 100/hr to have someone sit and shop vac the whole house 5hrs and Im not going to use my vac to clean up wood chips, nails, screws and all sorts of debris.

im there for the carpets and the other services we offer not general cleaning