Carpet Cleaning Bidding Software Offers Pricing and Proposal Help

Posted on by

Carpet cleaners are a lot like janitorial business owners – they need help when it comes preparing a cleaning bid. While it’s easy to see they need something to help them figure out how to price a carpet cleaning job, other things they need a bidding program to do may be less obvious.

So, what else do carpet cleaners need from their bidding program?

Well, they need a program that not only helps them set the price, they also need it to give them a professional looking proposal which they can deliver in person or email to their customer. Increasingly, documents are emailed rather than submitted in person due to the busy lifestyles of residential clients and the over-loaded work schedules of commercial customers.

Carpet cleaners also need to be able to customize the carpet cleaning proposal to impress even the toughest prospective client. Being able to change the wording of sections of a proposal, such as the cover letter, gives the carpet cleaning business owner the chance to customize the message to accurately fit the unique prospect they are bidding on.

Carpet cleaning software can provide proposal wording templates which can be easily edited to change bidding documents from looking somewhat standard and boring – to incredibly unique and customized.

Anything else? Well, yes.

There are a variety of carpet cleaning methods ranging from hot water extraction and dry chemical to bonnet pad and absorbent compound. A useful bidding program needs to be pre-programmed to help when any one of these methods are needing to be performed.

While hot water extraction continues to be a very common method of cleaning in both homes and offices, there are times these other methods are preferred, or even necessary, due to the restrictions or preferences of the building or home where the carpet is to be cleaned. For example, there may be no water access in one facility while in another a client will allow only bonnet cleaning for the monthly service of his building’s traffic lanes.

Next, carpet cleaning businesses need a program that can save their bid information – things like directions to the client’s home or office, security systems or even the prospect’s availability for scheduling purposes. They need the bidding program to keep this information organized and safe for later reference.

What kind of program can carpet cleaners what they are looking for?

Well, it’s carpet cleaning bidding software, of course. No surprise that technology would provide the answer to not only providing useful bidding help, but for creating customized proposals and for saving important customer information as well.

In this way, carpet cleaners are much like janitorial business owners, or really any home service provider, when it comes time to quote on a cleaning job – they all need an effective, multi-purpose tool that handles bidding, pricing and proposal.

Carpet cleaners, of course, will very often handle both residential, as well as commercial cleaning jobs, so whatever bidding software they choose should be able (programmed) to handle both.

While it’s easy to think that carpet cleaning is the same no matter where you do it – this idea is, at best, oversimplified. The reality is cleaning the carpet in a home can very different than in an office for a variety of reasons including whether there are pets, high levels of clutter as well as access or scheduling issues.

In addition, residential cleaning may offer more frequent opportunities for added revenue and profits by providing carpet fabric protecting and deodorizing services, but at the same time also present additional expense challenges.

These cost challenges in residential cleaning can include factors such as a smaller amount of carpet generally available to be cleaned in a home versus a commercial building, the additional travel time necessary to get to and from a greater number of these homes, or other factors such as the level of clutter.

Finally, carpet cleaning companies can also find differences in customer’s expectations between residential and commercial accounts that can translate into greater or lesser costs.

Having a carpet cleaning bidding program to handle factors such as size, carpet condition and the amount of things to move, provides an enormous advantage to the carpet cleaner when it comes time to prepare a proposal.

In addition, while both commercial as well as residential carpet cleaners use the proposal as a tool to communicate their best marketing messages to the prospective client, they may have differences in that go beyond differences in wording.

Specifically, when bidding a residential carpet cleaning project, the service provider may want to shorten the proposal and make things, such as the headings of categories, less formal. On the other hand, they may choose to may want to make the bidding document longer and more formal when bidding on a commercial job, even going so far as to include a contract or agreement section.

All of these things are possible through the use of a good carpet cleaning bidding software program. Carpet cleaning business owners know they need to take advantage of every edge they can to compete in today’s economy.

Having a user-friendly and easily customizable bidding method can be one of those important edges – giving them a fast, easy and professional way to bid their carpet cleaning jobs.

Get The Bathroom Vanity That Suits Your Available Space

Posted on by

Bathroom remodeling adds resale value to a home while updating the room’s look, use and important features. The new bathroom vanity you select will affect the function, feel and look of your entire space. The tone of the new décor is also set by the look of the new vanity you select. Before you make that choice, however, it is vital that you understand how you plan to use the space once the remodel is completed. How you need to delegate space for fixtures and cabinets will depend on how you want your bathroom to function.

Many design professionals will caution homeowners that it may be harder to design a home’s bathroom space than its kitchen. There are two reasons for this. One is that the space available for use in a bathroom is much smaller. The other is that every functional feature in a bathroom works with the use of electricity, water and/or a need to provide drainage. Building and plumbing codes must be followed to meet inspection requirements. Careful measurements should be taken and recorded to scale on graph paper so you know exactly how much space you have with which to work.

There are specific items to measure, observe and record. Among them are:

• the floor parameters

• the position of the window(s) on the wall(s)

• the precise location of heating vents/radiators

• the locations of water pipes

• the direction in which the door swings open and shut

• the location s of light switches, light fixtures and electrical outlet boxes

• the height of any window sill under which some feature may be placed

Now you can begin to pencil in vanities, plumbing fixtures and other attached details on your graph paper scale. There are specific minimum space requirements to consider in order that your bathroom is built to code. These rules state that:

• The minimum size of a bathroom with tub, toilet and lavatory must be five feet by seven feet.

• Powder rooms with only a lavatory and toilet just need a minimum of four feet by four and a half feet.

• Each feature must have specific minimum distances from other fixtures or any walls.

• Fixture measurements should be taken to each one’s centerline.

• Minimum clear floor space in front of the lavatory needs to be 30 inches by 48 inches.

• Minimum floor space in front of the toilet should be 48 inches by 48 inches.

• Minimum space from the lavatory’s centerline to any side walls should be 15 inches.

• Side by side lavatories should have a minimum of 30 inches from the centerline of one to the centerline of the other.

• Adults’ vanities must be between 34 and 42 inches tall.

Small bathrooms that are not just powder rooms but also contain a tub or shower can still accommodate a vanity. Pre-made stock vanities come in widths as small as 24 inches to 30 inch bathroom vanities. The range of widths for stock bathroom cabinetry runs from 24 inches to as much as 62 inches, or over five feet, for grand spa-like bathroom upgrades. Measure your space carefully, keep your list of functions ready, and you will be able to plan for the remodeled bathroom of your dreams.

Four Reasons It Pays to Maintain a Clean Construction Site

Posted on by

When planning any construction project, it is important to plan the set up, completion of the project and cleanup of the site. When looking at cleaning up a construction zone it is important to address the final cleanup as well as the ongoing maintenance and cleanup needs that will be faced daily. There are several benefits of ongoing and effective construction site cleanup which include: added safety onsite, greater productivity, a better reputation in your community and better cost savings per project.

Safety

An active construction yard is full of various dangers inherent to the nature of the work with scaffolds, ladders, electricity and heavy equipment. These factors combined with debris onsite which is not properly put away or disposed of makes an already dangerous location more so. Materials not put away or disposed of collecting around the feet of workers creates an added risk for tripping and when carrying materials from place to place, the view of the ground can be obstructed, making the importance of this practice critical.

Productivity

Just as mother always said, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” such is the guideline on an active construction site. Best case scenario is that workers spend time looking for materials which were not put in their proper place, wasting man hours. Worst case scenario in this situation is that the area becomes unsafe or causes an accident, spill, or casualty to a passerby.

Reputation

Word of mouth is critical in any business and construction is no exception. Cleanup of a site – both during the active phase as well as at completion is one area in which the general public can see a measurable gauge by which to admire or disparage a construction company. With proper construction site cleanup practices, the public gains a favorable opinion of your company and can recommend your services to others.

Cost savings

When employees are safe and productive, the time needed to complete a project is decreased. Having a constant awareness of keeping your construction site cleaned up can lead to more profits for your company.

No matter which of the above are the most important to you, or is the most needed for your company, there are reasons to continuously keep your active construction sites cleaned up and free from debris and unwanted materials. This keeps your construction zone running more smoothly and effectively while protecting your workers, the neighbors to the site and the environment as a whole.

How to Take Care of Hardwood Floors to Last As Long As Possible

Posted on by

Your hardwood floor was a big investment and you probably want it to stay in good condition for as long as possible. However, you probably missed out on how to take care of it from the hardwood floor installer. You can actually hire people to maintain your hardwood floor but it can cost hundreds of dollars to do so. But with the right knowledge, you can do it yourself and save money.

The first thing you probably thought about is to how to keep the shine on your floor. Before you go out to buy any floor cleaner, you have to figure out what kind of flooring you have. By using the wrong products, you can damage your floor and make it look worse. For example, if you have hardwood flooring, you want to find cleaning products that work with hardwood flooring.

Keeping your floor clean is important. You should dust every single week and clean up any mess you make to prevent stains from setting in. What happens when you leave a stain is that they set in and you have to really scrub it to get it out. Scrubbing the floors can scratch and damage it so you want to avoid that as much as possible.

The second thing you can do is to use rugs. If you want your hardwood floor to last as long as possible, you will want to use rugs as they protect the floor. They are great as decoration as well. When using rugs, you also want to use rug pads as the dirt and dust trapped under your rug can scratch the floor. The rug pads will hold the rug in place so you don’t accidentally move it and do a number on the floor.

The third thing you can do is to use wax to make your floor shine. You want to buy a wax that will work with the type of flooring you have. You can apply a small amount of wax and use a cloth to rub the wax away. This works wonders for laminate flooring and will really bring your flooring back to life if it has lost its shine over time.

The fourth thing you have to take into consideration is making sure you use the right vacuum cleaner for your hardwood floors. You want a vacuum cleaner without a beater bar so that you can get into boards. The dust can really build up and regular vacuums cannot reach in to get all of it out.

So those are some of the things you need to know to take care of a hardwood floor. Your hardwood floor installer may not have told you everything you need to know. So it is best to learn everything you can to keep your floor in great condition. With the right care, your floors can last decades. Make sure you use the right products and cleaning methods depending on the type of floor you have.