New add on services

What's do you guys see as a fast growing add on service. What seems to be low cost investment entry and higher return?  

For us it was carpet repair. Cost us about $1000 to get going. That included a class and equipment.

The return was we were walking over repairs everyday. So it was easy to add on the invoice.

I have to get off my butt and start pushing more uph cleaning

I was on a pretty good kick a few years ago I would clean two Lazy boy type chairs for 50 bucks takes an extra 30 to 45 minutes extra an extra 100 to 200 dollars a week not bad for an honest up sell.

50 dollars for the two chairs while I was cleaning at the house already

( just a note so the pricing police don't show up at my door )

Me to Terry. I guess my problems is I charge too much for a recliner. But if I'm there doing other stuff I guess I could take a nice chunk off. Just trying to see where I can make an easy bump for 2014

So, that's why the "pricing police" are always following me!!  

It's the $85 for the Recliners!  

Oh well, I'm ok with it, and as long as my customers are, we're good. :albino: 

New Add on service? Do you clean/restore Showers, Ryan? It's not easy, but good money.
I normally charge $600-$800 for most shower restorations. What about clean and seal granite and tile counter tops? You probably already have most of the equipment needed.
Exterior high PSI cleaning is another one.

I think dryer vent cleaning is a very good one looking ahead.

One of my current ones is cleaning fireplace brick. No homeowners clean the brick and they get coated in soot and dust very quickly. A PMF small hard surface tool with brush head and you can make a quick upsale that pays for your gas usage and dinner!

I think dryer vent cleaning is a very good one looking ahead.

not sure if I want the liability for that service.

Good one, Robert!

That's another nice one, that most of us probably already have the equipment for.

And easy to do, although can be a bit messy.  Worth it though, I usually get $250-300 for hearths and brick fire places.

Maybe we should start an add-on (other) photo thread?.....to give others an idea of what can be done.
I have quite a few good BnA pics I could share.  

Good idea Davey. As for the police thing. I have noticed about a 30-40% difference in west side pricing. I've been out west is I know you got to get higher pricing the cost is living in crazy.

Shower restoration? Are you talking tile showers?

Really good add on that I never really even thought if. Especially the fire place.

Wood floor polishing and/or sandless refinishing, and/or wax removal. The polishing you can do right then. The refinishing and/or wax removal you schedule for another day. The only equipment investment is a low speed buffer which you probably already have. Adds about $25k per year to my business - 75%+ profit. Thumbs up to dryer vent cleaning. Investment under $100, adds about $5k per year almost all profit (could probably double that if we put in a little effort). Offered exterior power washing, window cleaning, and driveway seal coating in the past when the economy really started to tank in 2009. All very low investment/hi profit and served well to increase revenue during really tough period. I really hated doing those so I don't offer them anymore:no: 

Ryan S wrote:Good idea Davey. As for the police thing. I have noticed about a 30-40% difference in west side pricing. I've been out west is I know you got to get higher pricing the cost is living in crazy.

Shower restoration? Are you talking tile showers?  

Really good add on that I never really even thought if. Especially the fire place.  

Yes tile/stone showers.  I call it 'restoration' because it's almost always much more than just cleaning! I'll post a couple pictures, in another thread......

Brick/stone fireplaces is another good one to pick up.

Carpet Daddy/Joe's got some good ones above too.  I forgot to mention wood floor cleaning, polishing/re-coating.  I do that fairly often, and can be good easy money.

Dryer duct vents too!  I've been meaning to get what I need to do those, but haven't yet.

Hey Ryan,

I've got a bunch of photos of jobs I've done from add-on services we're talking about here, that I thought might be helpful to show other RC's what else we can be doing. So I was thinking I'd start another thread just for the photos, so I didn't clog this one here of yours up.

But maybe it's better to include the photos in this thread? Figured I'd ask you since you're the thread starter and a mod.

Post photos here, or start a new 'add-on services photo' thread?

I'll wait to hear from you.............

Load them here. Easier to find in a search. Thx

Wood floor cleaning is being advertised by Stanley steamer and Sears. A couple of cleaners doing it near me. You clean it with a dirt dragon then reseal it.

Sounds good, Ryan.  I'll get some of those posted here tonight.....

As far as hard wood cleaning goes, you definitely don't need an expensive specially machine like the one in eldiabloz video above. It may be quicker, look fancy, and be great for marketing HW floor cleaning but just isn't necessary. I use a 175, small pump up sprayer, a wet/dry vac or TM and a clean mop, and that's about it. Well, a lil common sense doesn't hurt either!   I bring that up because, I thought it would be nice to share ideas on what add-on services we can do with the tools and equipment most of us already have.   Provide more services and make more money without having to go out and spend thousands for new equipment to do so.

I don't own the dirt dragon just sharing. I have always thought this service could be performed with a custom made wand with misting jets and a rubber shroud and some type of wheels or glides. After almost all of us own TM's. Anybody have any ideas? I would like to start cleaning woodfloors without having to spend big bucks for that plastic contraption. We should be able to design and retrofit one of our spare wands to do this. I think this machine also has a spinning brush. Anybody?

eldiabloz wrote:I don't own the dirt dragon just sharing. I have always thought this service could be performed with a custom made wand with misting jets and a rubber shroud and some type of wheels or glides. After almost all of us own TM's. Anybody have any ideas? I would like to start cleaning woodfloors without having to spend big bucks for that plastic contraption. We should be able to design and retrofit one of our spare wands to do this. I think this machine also has a spinning brush. Anybody?

"without having to spend big bucks for that plastic contraption".......There's no need to, Read my post above yours.
"We should be able to design and retrofit one of our spare wands to do this.".............Again, there is just no need for you to "design" your own equipment for this.....Also, I would strongly advice against using a wand type "contraption" to spray down water (even just a mist) on HW floors. But of course I'm not stopping you from making or doing what you would like.......just simply saying you do not need to in order to get HW floors clean.
"I think this machine also has a spinning brush. Anybody?"..........Not sure I count as  "Anybody" but, Yes you need agitation (again, you might want to read my post above yours). That's what the 175/floor machine is used for, agitation), especially if you really want to thoroughly clean a HW floor with real low moisture. The agitation compensates for the lack of moisture, so you don't 'cup' or 'raise the grain' on HW floors boards.

milspec6 wrote:I think dryer vent cleaning is a very good one looking ahead.

One of my current ones is cleaning fireplace brick.  No homeowners clean the brick and they get coated in soot and dust very quickly.  A PMF small hard surface tool with brush head and you can make a quick upsale that pays for your gas usage and dinner!

is this the tool you are talking about.. pretty dang cool if you ask me.. would be a dream for around toilets and corners in showers etc!? I have the WP Mini Spinner and love it! but that thing would be awesome too! Do the jets just sit in the vac port or is there more to it?

carpetdaddy wrote:Wood floor polishing and/or sandless refinishing, and/or wax removal. The polishing you can do right then. The refinishing and/or wax removal you schedule for another day. The only equipment investment is a low speed buffer which you probably already have.

Can you elaborate on the process and pads chems etc? Sounds pretty interesting! Sandless refinishing???  

Davey Cracker wrote:Sounds good, Ryan.  I'll get some of those posted here tonight.....

I use a 175, small pump up sprayer, a wet/dry vac or TM and a clean mop, and that's about it.

what kind of Pads? Just spray, hit with 175, vac up dirt, then flat mop?

Hey the 175 sounds good, what type of brush do you use?. after these dirt dragon cleaners clean they coat it with some sort of water based coating to make it shine. I always felt that they cust. would be calling you in a couple of months when this stuff started peeling. I still think a wand with some misting jets and and a rotary type brush would work well and impress the customer, wonder if the zipper can do this?

No brush, I either use a white or a red pad on 175 depending on the condition of the floor.

Ok, finally here's some of the pics I was talking about of jobs I've done doing some of the add on services we've talked about in this thread.

I'm not going to post all the cleaning details and how to's with these pics. But feel free to ask about whatever, I'll help out anyway I can..........

Travertine cleaning and sealing, or more like grout cleaning I guess since it's what was really dirty.....




Counter-top tile/grout cleaning & Grout sealing

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Brick Fireplace cleaning & sealing




Stone Polishing & sealing.  This is a 15 year old marble entryway, that had some broken tiles replaced, as you can see in the first/before pic, the lighter polished ones.  Then we polished the whole floor to get the uniform gloss.

Here's a couple of the shower restoration jobs I've done.....

1





2

I've got a bunch of exterior cleaning job pics too, but I'm wore out from posting so I'll get those up tomorrow. :bom: 

Nice work, I will be calling you to clean my shower! LOL. Did you have to re caulk that shower seat on the seams where the mildew was?

Davey,

What is your pre cleaning script while preinspecting the job. How do you verbalized the potential staining to porous grout lines? Just give us the caution phrase for short.

Looks great too.

What are your choice tools?

Give us some info on that marble polishing.