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I know this has been brought up before, but a quick search didn’t find any posts on it so I’m starting it again. Anyone charge for moving furniture? I charge per the cleanable sq ft, so if I clean under furniture, my only additional charge so to speak is that additional square footage. I have a job later today for an older person that wants all carpet cleaned, even under beds/dressers/PIANO. I told her we may or may not be able move/clean under certain pieces, and she seemed angered by it. We clean for her daughter and luckily she will be there when we clean.
I had a regular of mine call me and ask if they were getting a fair price on cleaning their vacation home in an area where there is no HB operator. They were quoted $.30/sq ft for traffic areas and $.45/sq ft if furniture is moved. Got me thinking. I have no problem moving an occasional couch, chair, or coffee table, but I really get annoyed when I have to move a whole room (especially when we all know it’s not dirty under most furniture..like pianos!). Even with furniture sliders, it is still time consuming, especially as you have to use tabs/styrofoam blocks to keep furniture off carpet when you’re done to prevent rust or wood stain issues. I don’t like having “additional charges” if possible, but between the added time it takes to move and clean under furniture, plus the chances of injury or damage, it is really something I am examining. Would love any thoughts or opinions, and also how you word it on the phone as that is often what is key. Sometimes what you say on the phone often isn’t what the customer hears.
That’s a good question. Most of my jobs involve moving at least some furniture. My target customer is high end and they usually want every thing moved. So I started quoting all of my jobs at a price that includes the time to move the furniture. If the customer asks about a price for empty rooms, I adjust for that (only for empty rooms). But, I never bring it up unless the customer does. Some of my competition offer different pricing levels or packages (gold-silver-bronze) that lets the customer choose among other things, if they want the furniture moved and price accordingly. Others never move any thing and clean for $19.95/room. Not my target customer. I like to keep the pricing simple. I charge by the SqFt. I subtract for any area under furnuture I don’t clean/move. I don’t move beds unless they can be slid back an forth while assembled. No pianos either.
I don’t charge to move furniture either. I only charge for the extra sqft. The only time when I charge for moving furniture is in the bedrooms because you have to usually move the furniture more than once. Rarely do people want this. In front a couch I find that moving it I can get a better clean on the traffic area in front of it. Yes its not dirty underneath but you don’t have to go over it three times either. Here is a couple of good things that I can think of about not charging extra for furniture moving. 1. Some of the competition does if you don’t that is one more thing to set you a little bit apart. 2. Or raise your prices a couple cents for everybody and have that included. That might be a little bit of a gray area. In my opinion the more things that we can do that set us apart from everybody else the better. Just one more reason to call us. Yes is might be a little bit of a pain, but we all need every job we can get these days.
I phone quote with a “max price” and then let them know that we will be more than happy to discount if there is very little furniture to move and soil/staining conditions are better than average. This keeps them from thinking you are charging extra. I finish by explaining that time is money. If you help me to save time by moving most of the furniture, I will save you money.
I agree. Quote a price and give a discount accordingly is the best route.
In the old school, they required additional insurance to move entertainment centers and pianos. (because they were the biggest problems, pianos- hard on body/back and could damage carpet when moved. entertainment centers- were not built well (and still aren’t made to move)).Never move a grandfather clock. Locally cost $72 to recalibrate time. (Don’t ask me how I know).
One time I told a lady, (who had a lot of furniture) I would charge her more for moving of furniture or I would charge her what a moving company would charge her to remove the furniture and put it back. Or she could call them to come out to remove it and I would give her a discount the clean the carpet and then they could more it back. I think the moving company would charge more than I do to do both… After seeing a different perspective she had no problem with the extra charge.
Agree with all comments. What do you do when the lady says, fine, I’ll move it? She was there with her 2 daughters (she is 60-70 yr old, they are 40 give or take a few). They offered to move it all. Tough to allow that when you and your employee are both males in your 30’s. Add to it waiting for them to continually move stuff for you would have added another hour to the job on top of the time it would take us to move it all and clean. Cramped house in the first place. The job ended up being just over 1,000 sq ft plus 1 set of stairs. Total came to $350 and it took us 2.5 hours. The carpet was 20 yr old green shag (I wanted to grab my clubs and play a round on it after we were done!) and wasn’t dirty at all. If we hadn’t moved the furniture, it probably would have been around 800-900 sq ft plus stairs and would have taken us at most 1.5 hrs. So, was it worth the extra hour to make approx $60-70? I’m still debating when you factor in chances of injury and damage. I know this situation is a little off the norm since she was willing to move stuff, but I’m still looking for a pricing structure that will cover most bases for these situations.
Oh, another thing about pianos, I believe it is recommended they be retuned ($$$) any time they are moved so that is something you can mention to people that want you to move them. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention that.
Dave,
I must have missed something…you did a job for 2.5 hours for $350 and are ticked that you blew an hour of that time waiting for furniture to be moved… I wish i had all those jobs here.
How were you charging to not move furniture to make $350 for only exposed carpeting?
I may have missed something someplace…doesn’t make too much sense to me. I would have thought that if you cleaned less, the you would have made less..with all the furniture, much less.
I agree on the piano…never ever touch them….very good advice.
Dave,
We did move all the furniture and the total was $350 and it took my employee and I about 2.5 hrs to clean the place. If we hadn’t moved the furniture, I estimate the total for cleaning just the traffic areas with no furniture moved to be around $280-$290 and probably would have taken my employee and I about 1.5 hrs total at most to clean. So, we moved every piece of furniture in the house minus a china hutch but including the piano, for an extra $60-$80 and an extra hour of back breaking work. If we would have waited and let them move all the furniture, I estimate it would have taken us at least 3.5 hrs to clean the place. $350 for a job normally is great in my book. $350 for that job, that’s my question (my back would tell you no right now).
Thank you Dave for the reminder.
China hutches can go to… China. (yes I know china is also flat wear)I will only move then if everything in them are removed. (by them)
For example: I will not be stuck paying for sentimental grief for a nick-nack item their grandfather gave them from overseas when he was in WWII.Just think before you do.
Someone once asked me to mone an upright…they then left and returned in an hour or so. The piano had not been moved and they were a little ticked at me, until I went over and showed them the front legs we all but falling off.
I hesitate to move anything that I would not want to purchase. No antiques, no loaded anything furniture wise, tvs, consoles, computers anything electronic is pretty much off limits. I go by the rule that the last person to touch something is usually the culprit when it doesn’t work.
If it is valuable, I let them move it…or clean around it saying that it is clean dirt under it anyway.
Dave:
We automatically move (unless the customer does not want anything moved) items like; couches, l/s, recliners, coffee tables, chairs and end tables. We do not move beds, desks, pianos, dressers or any pieces holding breakable items. Some customers will ask if they can pay extra to have these items moved; this is not an option for liability reasons. If a customer wants to move these items for cleaning, they must be moved prior to our arrival. Luckily we don’t come across this too often. Any customer that has had a problem with this, has become an ex-customer.
Hope this helps.
Last summer I cleaned for an older lady, her daughter was there helping her. She wanted to move the bed out of a br and then put it back after i got it done. I reluctantly said ok. I can do that She said thats ok we will get it. I got the bedroom finihed and was moving to another room and this lady grabs that mattress and picks it up and carries it in to the BR.I said “let me hlp you with that Ma’am” Before I could set stuff down she had it in there by herself. She was maybe 100lbs and 93 years old! Her daughter said to me that, Mom has to do everything by herself.
we move reasonable furn,always included in price,wich is no charge of course.if we have to move beds,mirror dressers,pianos,cabinets that are heavy,sectionals that are bolted together, any kind of big screen tv’s that have a ton of wires behind,or even have to prep the job when they say they are ready when we told them what they should do before we arrive.as said, time is money,that is a key in a profitable day.but we will discount if we don’t have to move a thing,that they love the unexpected,not often is that done.how about when we empty our vacuum 2,3,even 4 times.we have filled our edge vacuum up to 4 times on jobs,we know everyone has that happened to them also.we will just charge for unexpected,unreasonable, and not ready.just try to keep them happy or understanding or hopefully both.
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