The less said the better when it comes to creating repeats out of pet owners

bob vawter

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I disagree as well....as Mark was jus as crazy the first day he stumbled into this loony bin as he is today....
Chems or not Mark is a great asset to this forum. .....

' cides he's buying us a big fast boat someday....
 
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Spurlington

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I'm thinking of just a simple 20% extra effort and chemical tax for pet jobs. If the cleaning is $300 the additional fee for pet conditions would be $60 and this is not optional. Your total is $360.00. I'm just thinking out loud here, never done it this way.

There was one time I had an extreme case of discusting piss contaminated carpet. As Im giving the price - I said, it will cost $XXX.xx to clean and odor treat. Gave no option to do with out the help of the odor treatment. They did accept.
 
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Tom Forsythe

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One thing that I have learned in the last year (can't believe I didn't learn this in the previous 19 years) may be helpful. Most of the urine salts have ammonia as a base (odor encapsulants can deal with other odors as well as ammonia). The pH of ammonia is around 12. If you reduce the pH to below 9, the ammonia odor is neutralized. (You can see this for yourself wearing safety glasses and gloves for lab like test. Grab some ammonia and slowly add diluted acid to the solution) There are many products and methods out there, but if you include a strong enough acid (peroxide is acidic but not strongly acidic)in the process somewhere, you can reduce the ammonia odor and use less of the expensive odor encapsulants. An acid rinse may not be strong enough by itself.
 

Tom Forsythe

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Peroxides are great on contaminates. You cannot legally say it disinfects or sanitizes to government standards, but you also cannot say that it does not do some great cleaning on urine and its contaminants. I love peroxide, but it is very difficult to formulate, keep stable and get customers to buy regularly in small amounts. All peroxide products will sour when stored improperly and kept too long. Buy at most two months at a time. We know of customers who bought too much stock, stored it improperly, and started to have sour smelling product after a year.
 

SamIam

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Peroxides are great on contaminates. You cannot legally say it disinfects or sanitizes to government standards, but you also cannot say that it does not do some great cleaning on urine and its contaminants. I love peroxide, but it is very difficult to formulate, keep stable and get customers to buy regularly in small amounts. All peroxide products will sour when stored improperly and kept too long. Buy at most two months at a time. We know of customers who bought too much stock, stored it improperly, and started to have sour smelling product after a year.


Well that stinks!
 
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oh my garsh .....that sounded so "Cobblike":lol:

there's nothing "new under the sun"
just different formulations of the same ole sheeit that's always been brewed

enzymes and molecular modifiers work fine for cleaning garbage cans and dumpsters
But there's nothing better than peroxide (or mixed OTJ sodium perk) for carpet urine contamination ..period

Hi, do you mean 40 vol peroxide? Thanks, Pat

similar to Jim's custy, I had one too
From '92 til she passed of cancer in 2011 we cleaned her postage stamp sized lving rm, kitchen and hall twice a year that her little tea cup mutt fouled regularly.
She was embarrassed at times

What I told her?

"Dottie, you keep loving your little doggie, and we'll keep doing the best we can"

..L.T.A.
 
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Dolly Llama

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Hi, do you mean 40 vol peroxide? Thanks, Pat


yep
I personally used more sodium percarbonate (essentially powdered peroxide) mixed on the job as needed
Simply due to being more stable/longer shelf life (in unmixed form) and more economical

since you're new here, Pat, I don't know your level of expertise/knowledge
so be advised, using strong oxidizers "may" bleach "some" carpets .

Pretty rare from my experience, but have seen it happen on problem stains of the "spray 'n pray" type ..that being spraying the persistent stains before you leave in hopes the stain will disappear by morning and pray the carpet dyes don't disappear with the stain .....

note in the above type use, only use liquid peroxide not sodium perc mix.
as sodium perc should be rinsed out due to soda ash left behind

.L.T.A.
 
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yep
I personally used more sodium percarbonate (essentially powdered peroxide) mixed on the job as needed
Simply due to being more stable/longer shelf life (in unmixed form) and more economical

since you're new here, Pat, I don't know your level of expertise/knowledge
so be advised, using strong oxidizers "may" bleach "some" carpets .

Pretty rare from my experience, but have seen it happen on problem stains of the "spray 'n pray" type ..that being spraying the persistent stains before you leave in hopes the stain will disappear by morning and pray the carpet dyes don't disappear with the stain .....

note in the above type use, only use liquid peroxide not sodium perc mix.
as sodium perc should be rinsed out due to soda ash left behind

.L.T.A.
Ok, great. Thanks for the clarification. I've been hearing about 40 vol, and wanted your input on it and the whole deal. I think its about 12 percent peroxide, and Im told one doesn't want to go beyond that strength.
Pat
 
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If you don't mind dealing with your contaminated equipment and value a customer who's pets use the floors as their toilet, DONT say a damn thing, Just pre vac where you can safely, use your UV light with out mentioning it, hit the pee spots with some 40 and or some smell good product and just flush the carpet as best you can.

No water claw promises, no lectures, no mention of needing new carpet or pad, just pat the dog on the head and charge enough to make it worth your while.

They know whats going on most of the time, don't make them feel uncomfortable by pointing out how disgusting they and their pets are.

The second you start itemizing for adding a glug of deo to your HF or $25 per spot to water claw and so much per foot to apply a post Deo, you've probably lost them. They'll keep searching for that laid back cleaner who doesn't have to nickle and dime every job to get by, which probably means their search will never end unless the move to Gardnerville NV.

Hi, I read this thread last night or so, and today I was on a pet job. I put into practice some of the things I got from the thread. I certainly did not play up the urine spots, I kept quiet about it. It was a pet job to begin with. I like the idea of calling it liquids in the carpet or a pet accident. The ideas in this thread has made me more sensitive to an already sensitive subject. So, I'm glad I read it. Pat
 

Larry Cobb

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I say I'll just add some odorside treatment for the smell and peroxide to take care of the bacteria and staining and spray the noticeable areas really good, then give them extra flush rinsing when I'm cleaning. They take that 95% of the time. That's all they want is some extra love and attention to those areas and just clean it.

I agree with Scott, and I think he makes a good point about "the bacteria" . This is why I think you have to explain the extent of the spots that show up with the UV light.

Then explain that the "oxidizers" you are going to use will decrease the microbial count, but are not sanitizers. As has been said, it is impossible to remove all the contamination, but a strong oxidizer + compatible actual Enzyme will do a very good job of reducing the microbes which do make the carpet less healthy.

Some treatment to reduce the microbial count should always be used for pet treatment.
 
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ruff

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Educating, not lecturing, the client about a potential problem in their home, is always a good thing. We all know that they've been exposed to unrealistic claims both by cleaners and products.
Not doing it because.......is nothing but patronizing.
 

Cleanworks

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Educating, not lecturing, the client about a potential problem in their home, is always a good thing. We all know that they've been exposed to unrealistic claims both by cleaners and products.
Not doing it because.......is nothing but patronizing.
I educate my customers on everything from urine and other spills to replacement carpet and installation practices. So much that I have one carpet retailer call to ask me to stop recommending power stretching.
 
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Mark Saiger

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I was looking over our schedule past couple weeks and a few jobs ahead....about 2/3 of those jobs have mention of pet situations! :eekk:

I don't know if it is the time of year with the cold, but we have been going through the product each day for this type of work.

Just finished 2 today that was pet related...not super sever but definitely plenty present...but not a lot registering in the pad at the moment active I would say.

So, some good successful FIXES and making people FEEL BETTER cleaning ....
 

Rick J

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If you call taking 400 phone calls a day from rookie carpet cleaners who need to know how many square feet 10 x 12 is for what he could have made in two jobs a month a Jack Pot than yes, hip hip hooray! :rockon:
Darn, I've been calling, and calling!!BLOCKED??:biggrin:
 

Rick J

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One thing that I have learned in the last year (can't believe I didn't learn this in the previous 19 years) may be helpful. Most of the urine salts have ammonia as a base (odor encapsulants can deal with other odors as well as ammonia). The pH of ammonia is around 12. If you reduce the pH to below 9, the ammonia odor is neutralized. (You can see this for yourself wearing safety glasses and gloves for lab like test. Grab some ammonia and slowly add diluted acid to the solution) There are many products and methods out there, but if you include a strong enough acid (peroxide is acidic but not strongly acidic)in the process somewhere, you can reduce the ammonia odor and use less of the expensive odor encapsulants. An acid rinse may not be strong enough by itself.
Come on now. You can't say you have never been told to use vinegar? Granny's remedy!!
Heck , Bp's Urine Pre spray smells like vinegar with a fragrace to mask the vinegar smell!!
 

Tom Forsythe

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I do not remember my mom using vinegar to do any cleaning in our house. Of course, I do not remember doing much cleaning as I grew up on the farm. Replacing a urine smell with a vinegar smell is not my idea of odor removal. It does make sense now why the vinegar smell or acetic acid smell is so strong as the acid neutralized the ammonia and did not work like a pairing agent. I would of loved using vinegar whenever I cleaned out the chicken coops as it reaked of ammonia. Vinegar is not that strong so it would not of worked in the chicken coop and may not in every instance neutralize the quantity of ammonia salts in carpet or rugs. I generally thought that rug washers used acetic acid to stablize loose dyes not for odor control. Citric and glycolic acid have the benefit of neutralizing the ammonia od0r by reducing the pH without leaving the smell of vinegar (acetic acid). As a professional why would you use any product that smelled like common vinegar. We have never liked the smell of vinegar which is why we stopped using acetic acid in our urine neutralizer and replaced it with citric acid and glycolic acid with a much lower and professional odor profile a few years ago. In any event, this only became clear to me in the last year as we improved our Urine Neutralizer (renamed from TCU Neutralizer) formula. Also, as a practice I would believe anyone when they admit to not knowing something.
 
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SamIam

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I educate my customers on everything from urine and other spills to replacement carpet and installation practices. So much that I have one carpet retailer call to ask me to stop recommending power stretching.


We have Lowe’s, HD, and Empire Floor one year warranty on install,

And even that usually doesn’t last.

A local carpet place metro floors has a lifetime guaranty on the stretch.

I get lots of call for stretching and every now and then, they’ll say ya he had metro install the caroet.

I’m ask did you call them?

About 10 times or so I’ve saved some people some cash.
 
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Educating, not lecturing, the client about a potential problem in their home, is always a good thing. We all know that they've been exposed to unrealistic claims both by cleaners and products.
Not doing it because.......is nothing but patronizing.
You mean scolding, cause lecturing is educating. Informing, teaching, educating, lecturing, all synonyms. So, you must me scolding or something to make the person feel bad. Anyway, some good pointers in this thread. :)
 
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ruff

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You mean scolding, cause lecturing is educating. ..................
If you equate educating to lecturing.......you must have gone to the wrong school or hung out with the wrong 'educational' crowd :winky:

You educate your clients (because you are the expert and they most likely have been exposed to some misinformation & claims) in an informed, concise (not crazy complicated, unless they ask for more details) and friendly manner.

Do not assume that they don't get it (patronizing), because they do. And if you do it right your clients will appreciate it and think highly of you.

I don't make decisions for my clients regarding their property (see under "patronizing".) I help them make the best, informed decision for themselves.

Capiche?
 
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