I have recently begun offering 2 options on my commercial jobs: either encap (lower sq. ft. price) or natural (higher sq. ft. price) I do this realizing in commercial situations, decision-making is still more likely to be bottom-line-based, but that environmental (indoor air quality) issues are gradually becoming important to the more enlightened facility manager. I recently submitted one of these 2-tiered proposals to Oxfam-America for their national HQ here in Boston. They chose the all-natural option, (at .18/sq. ft.) for their 12,000 s.f. office space, which we will clean 2 times per year. Encap is faster, since there is very little stopping to change pads, but the dollars generated per actual hours on the job should be about the same.
The job will be done using our Orbitec CX-20's.

Mark at bonnetpro.com they have a green encap product they just came out with I ordered some, becuase I was using there other product that they are now discontinuing, but it worked very well for me, I do not know if there standard of green is the same as yours, it is not all natural, but they claim it is very safe for the environment and indoor air quality, I love there old product and they say this new product works even better, you should check it out and let us know what you think. There original product they claim has properties other encap products do not, they claim that what ever product is left over in the carpet will continue to encapsulate dirt untill it is completley vaccumed out, I do not know how true this is but I do like the cleaning abbilities of thier product.

They also sell some equiptment for large commercial jobs, it has two heads instead of one, they even have one you can ride on.

I went to "contact" on the bonnetpro website and requested an MSDS on what they call their green product, which is called Surround.

I found the msds on their site, nothing listed in the chemical portion. Unfortunately,whatever is in it they don't let us know, but there must not be any butyl, glycol ethers, or lauryl sulfate or they'd have to put them on there.

Thanks for pointing this out to us. If/when any of you give it a try let us know what you think.

I forgot to read the original post and just read the last reply. I've been doing exactly what Mark mentioned, giving 2 bids. In the last week 3 of 4 have selected the "natural" over the encap. 2 pre-schools and a yoga studio chose the natural, and a chiro's office chose encap. I just finished doing the chiro's office with releasit and it turned out great. Doing the yoga studio tonight and the second pre-school on Monday.

Advertising "green" or "all-natural" cleaning works. 3 of these 4 have all contacted ME, not the other way around. All were looking for odorless, chem-less solutions and were frustrated with those they have tried in the past. Sometimes being different is good when "the pack" isn't offering what a segment of the population is after.

Grant, that is exactly the point I keep trying to make on this Forum, and in my phone and email discussions with people who are contemplating entering this business. Alas, I am afraid that only SOME of them actually act on this strategy. Too may say something like" Well, I'd like to charge higher rates, of course, but the going rate here in Toonerville is only such & such." My response is:
where you live, what is the going rate for, say, a new or used car?" The real range is anywhere from a few thousand dollars for a 10-year old cheapie, up to the mid-to-high 5 figures for a new, high-end quality automobile. Shopping for food? There are bottom-line types who spend hours clipping discount coupons so as to save $3 at the supermarket, and there are the folks who glide into a Whole Earth/Whole Foods type of supermarket and pay 50% above the prices at the standard store. Some women go to hair salon which is cheap and basic, and others go to a high-end salon where they enjoy being pampered, and the feeling that "they're worth it!!". Some guys mow their own lawns, and do all of the other yard and home fix-up stuff. Others pay a landscape maintenance company, a house painter, ot some other professional or skilled tradesman so as to not have to do this stuff themselves. They'd rather be playing golf or tennis, or taking their family to the beach or country club pool. In some places, the range of what people will spend to acquire the perceived benefit of a certain product or service is greater than it is in others, but it exists everywhere. The savvy small business owner will tap the higher end every time.

Mark, What is the sqft per hour rate using your orbitec with natural cleaning vs encap cleaning?

With encap, I can consistently cover around 2000 s.f. per manhour, sometimes up to 2500, assuming that I have a helper making sure that as soon as the machine's tank is empty, he is there with another pre-mixed load. Don't try to do large jobs with having someone like this to get water, mix in the cleaning concentrate, and have it ready to re-load your machine. What you pay this person will be made up many-fold in heightened efficiency. With a natural cleaner and cotton pads, which require turning and/or replacement when they become saturated, you should be able to clean between 1500 and 2000 s.f. per hour. Your helper should make sure that your replacement pads are ready to use (immersed in a wringer bucket, and squeezed out.)

Thanks Mark, I seem to be doing around 500 sqft per hour with the challenger, of corse this goes up or down depending on soil level, so 1500 sqft would be a nice improvement. One more question,when doing natural cleaning on large commercial jobs, do you use the 2 gallon sprayer from home depo, or do you have something that sprays faster? If so what, and where can I get it. Thank you!

On the large commercial jobs, the Orbitec gets most of the work, as its on-board 2.5 gallon tank and electric spray system eliminate the step of spraying separately. Instead, it's spray as you go. I usually bring the Challenger in on jobs of this type as well, to get into any nook & crevice type of places that are too tight for the larger Orbitec, such as under some desks, or in a copy room or someplace like that. If you are not familiar with the Orbitec, take a look at www.orbitecsolutions.com.
Find the CX-20 and CX-17.

How can you spray as you go when doing natual cleaning, don't you need dwell time?

The more of this work I do, the less I feel that dwell time is a big factor. Dwell time is very important for people doing HWE cleaning, which involves very little agitation of the carpet fiber. The injection and vacuuming out of the rinse water is all you've got to get the soil out, so if you don't allow dwell time, you're not getting much soil out. With 1750 RPM scrubbing away at the carpet fiber, my experience is that in most cases this is enough, and that dwell time of the just-sprayed cleaning solution is enough to do a good job. Areas of high soiling that don't come clean on the 1st or 2nd pass can be re-sprayed and gone over again.
There will be some who find this to be heresy, but I'm standing by it.

You heritic! :) Ok now I can see doing 1500 - 2000 sqft per hour (using natural cleaning solution) with that big op. I want to get one. It is on my wish list.

I'm not sure I seen the benefit of using an all natural cleaner in that fashion over just plain water. You really won't be picking up all the solution, so you're probably leaving a residue if you're just going over each area once.

If you are coming back later for a second pass then I see how that would work.

I don't have a machine with a tank, but I always go over each area twice and the best I've been able to average with all natural cleaning was about 1800 sf. in 3 hours with my 17" machine. Used about 25 pads for that area. I could see going from 600 sf/hour to 1000 with a tank so maybe we're getting close.

When you're going over areas that are lightly soiled, don't activate your sprayer trigger continuously; squeeze it intermittently. You'll be putting down enough to clean the area, but not so much that you're creating a residue problem. In more heavily soiled areas, make multiple passes. Change pads frequently enough so that they don't become soil-saturated.

Grant, how did id go at the pre-school and Yoga center with the Green Encap?