Cleaning services.

A long with trapping and removal I am sure most of you offer cleaning. I was wondering if any of you use carpet shampooers. I was wondering if a skunk sprayed under a house and the whole house smelled, would the owner benefit from having the carpets shampooed. Obviosly it would be a great tool if coons or skunks physically got into a house, but I am looking for the best choices in odor removal.

No time to be Molly maid.

It could offer income potential in your area. In our area carpet cleaning companies are worse than landscapers with price cuts and specials. I could not compete with their prices and get what I would need to justify my time. I would probably try to get a connection with someone who provided such a service and either do lead sharing or a 10% finders fee.

We can only hope that a skunk goes off right by Dave K's air conditioner! ( And Dave's a friend of mine. Imagine what I would have said otherwise )

We have a company in Wisconsin called Service Master. They claim to be able to remove things like fire and skunk odor and even if they can't, at least you've got the customer off of your neck. Let's hope the are a National company and cover California.

If a skunk sprays under a house, the carpet is NOT where you need to focus. I do a lot of deodorizing (bats, skunks, etc). Treating the area sprayed is the primary goal. If not, every time it rains or the humidity climbs, it will smell like the skunk JUST SPRAYED again, and this can last for up to a year.

I do some fogging inside the living quarters, but only a limited amount. Using enzyme-based deodorizers is the key. In many crawl spaces, it is actually necessary to scoop out several inches of dirt from the area directly sprayed.

Good responses on a variety of angles on this.

What Holt said about how cheaply folks will clean carpets that would have most of us forgetting that business option.

What Ron said about how that odor will stay for a variety of reasons.

**

Carpet is as I saw it put once, one big absorbent sponge. When it comes to smell if your house is carpeted wall to wall in all areas it will never
hurt to have it cleaned, though I'd encourage them to call someone to do it for the above reasons.... New paint, fresh carpet can all add positive odor input that can help balance out existing odors which can't hurt for some folks.

Justin.... I hope it didn't sound like I suggested NOT to have the carpets cleaned. I was trying to get the point across that if the odor source is not targeted, any other cleaning is a waste of time and money. Heck, I've done several skunk jobs where every piece of clothing in the closets needed dry cleaned to eliminate the odor.

No no Ron, not at all!

I definitely got where you were coming from and know you've got the years to back it up! Just wanted to offer up that it was always worth a gander to think about other items in the home like the carpet.

Since I don't mess with striped kitties very often I only get a few opportunities to see this play out and know it can sure put the pressure on to vent the odor and do anything to remove it!

I like to read the posts from all you guys who do most of this stuff and have for years and years so I know what I might get myself into with some calls I might opt to take.

My first sentence actually makes it sound like carpet cleaning is not needed. That's not how I wanted to come across!

Ron, I've never been sprayed or even seen skunk quill - what's it look like?
We stress in our marketing that we are full-time wildlife control; don't do bugs, Christmas lites, lawn care etc. For several reasons I think this is a good business model.
How many of you have dropped various add-on services?

Add-on services that I offer are directly related to wildlife control. When I do squirrel (or even bat) jobs on a large home, if they have tree limbs all over the home (or near) I often quote a price for trimming limbs back 10 to 15 feet from the home. I already have my lift set up for those jobs, so it's easy money to go ahead and trim back the branches. Sometimes I have to return with my flatbed trailer to haul off, but often (many cities) I can just pile the branches along the road or alley and the city picks them up at no cost.

Cleaning gutters on 2.5 and 3-story homes is an easy up-sell, especially while the lift is already in place. I almost never have anyone turn down the add-ons. The add-on services easily add thousands of dollars to the bottom line every year, and it's much easier and more efficient use of time as compared to simply doing "more" jobs to increase the income.

I seldom do interior deodorizing (not talking about attics) unless it is really horrible and the owners can't wait for Serv-Pro or some other disaster restoration company. That is NOT my specialty, so I try to refrain from tying myself down to those type of services.

I understand if the monies not there its not. And I definatley know the crawl space itself is first priority. I was just looking for ways to do add ons. I don't think my area will support a ADC company alone, but add ons, like Ron said can add thousands. If I'm on the roof, why not clean the gutters. If shampooing a carpet is what someone wants, why not.

I'm just wondering if it would have a positive effect or just a separate issue.

One of our technicians is still single and I've been trying to convince him that dinner and a movie is not actually an add-on service.

Nothing wrong with add ons throw back, as long as they work for your business model, why not!

Dave - I have dropped some services...much better.

Yeah, he no longer does windows.

I wish my wife had the same reaction.