Courtesy of Scott Bauer
Cheers Scott -
The one thing that worrys me is the cotton or thread that holds the laterals apart. I feel that these may break when cleaning & I have to pay up for the destruction. Have you had any break?
I have had two ladders come off the tilt rod but we are talking from thousands of blinds cleaned. I have broke numerous wands and tilters. that is the name of the game. When they break it’s one of two things or both…1. the blinds are old worn and just beat up by the sun or owner, and 2. being to rough with them during cleaning. you just want to treat them like fine china or somethings between your waist and knees. most of my guys understand that analogy the best. scrubing really hard can break them or bend them. once you have the blind on the ground the hard part is done. brush lightly around the wand and gently over the strings and ladders close to the headrail. The wands break the easiest. even the ones made of metal are really fragile. I have a waiver much like a CCU waiver. It states that by signing this waiver I am not responsible for parts breaking during cleaning due to sun damage or missuse. sun damage is a wide scope but in a nutshell if the plastic parts were white and now yellow or clear and now a milky color they are sun damaged. flakey paint, freyed strings, cracked or broken parts can all be considered sun damage. I check each blind before I even take them down. if it doesn’t pass inspection I don’t wash it. if I get it up on the racks and see something wrong there it goes back up. Most of the time people will know if their blinds are crap or broken. with the waiver and a little explaining most are up for the cleaning either way. The ones I don’t deem fit to clean that could could eaisly turn into a future blind sale if you are in that biz. Most of the metal mini’s are pretty standard parts if they were constructed in the last ten years and you can still get parts for them. if the ladders or strings come off the tilt rod most of the time you can tie them back on if everything inside the headrail is still functioning. sun damage can also be found in the parts on the inside. After about 20-30 blinds everything is a breeze. just be carefull at first and take you time. at an average of $12.00 per blind and the average house here has 20 blinds that is $240.00. 20 blinds will normally take me about an hour or two to clean and reinstall. Hope all this helps you make some more money. I started selling blinds because I figure my body won’t let me clean windows for the rest of my life. so with window cleaning you already have your foot in the door for the sales aspect. I am just in the process of building that up now. I love cleaning windows but blinds pay more and is easy on the body. let me know if you need anything else.
I would love to see pictures of the cleaning process.
Wouldn’t sponges be more gentle than wands?
Have you ever implented the Sörbo stuff for use?
The main reason I use a pole and brush is because I can stand and do the work. I will take some pics the next time I am cleaning them and maybe some video.
