Hood Cleaning School

Did Rusty teach you spanish also?
 
Ci, Senior!
 
Picked up the spanish from Dora the Explorer :D . My 2 year old loves that show. I did pick up some of the Nashvillian slang from Rusty, ya'll. :D
 
I figured you guys would be the best people to ask a question about grease...lol

Question, what would you suggest using to remove kitchen grease from a dumpster pad area and a concrete parking lot that has a painted coating on it? The dumpster overflowed and then ran down into a parking lot, then got tracked all over the place by traffic. I did a hot water test working my way up to 200 degrees and also tried sodium hydroxide but it didn't get it nearly as clean as I wanted.

Any suggestions?
 
I use a chem called "Panel Cleaner." It's a caustic soda based product with 9 other degreasers mixed together. Email me or call me and I'll see if I can get you some.

Comes in a liquid concentrate form and you dilute it with water, apply directly via your pressure washer (just be sure and rinse with plenty of water).

If you have to contain your run-off, you'll need wet vacs, dams, etc.

I would also recommend a surface spinner if the area is large enough to justify it.

You'll want a pressure washer in the 5000psi range with at least 3 to 5 GPM.
 
I think 5000psi will remove the painted coating.
 
Let me clarify.. when using a surface spinner.
 
Hey Russell,

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls and see if a degreasing agent I have will help me at all. I've got some 396 from ACR Products I was going to try but I think it's mainly for car oils instead of vegitable oils. The sodium hydroxide worked a bit but not very effective at all and I want the get the best results I can without removing any of the paint coating. This place is a real mess, once I get on the job I'll take some pictures so you can see just what I'm talking about.
Since the paint is already failing using a surface cleaner won't be possible, I'm most likely going to scoop up the congealed grease with a few snow shovels then try to pull as much of the oil as I can off the surface. I've already told the manager that they will probably end up re-doing all of the painted concrete because the grease is either causing it to fail and peel up or it's just in terrible shape to begin with.
 
I am not going to give an opinion on the school , I guess everybody has a way they feel is right to make a buck. But the way I see it is that every job you do wether it be hoods , windows, concrete, trucks, or homes or whatever .. there is a great need for a talent to be able to perform this job well..

I trained a guy once that was a little older than me .. He even started his own business.. He and I work together sometimes because he is still a very good friend of mine.. We even agree not to steal each others accounts.
I went to clean with him last week and I noticed that when he cleaned the grease trough(?) on the hood that he wasn't getting all of the grease out...He has been cleaning 6 years.. I remember a while back showing him how to clean the troughs out..

HMMMM

Like I said you got to have that talent...
I clean hoods, Repair appliances, Perform Fire Equipment Inspections and recharges..but put me in front of a peice of glass and it's streaked every time..

I will say this about hood cleaning companies or schools... Every Job is Different, I Clean around 185 Restaurants in Mississippi. And everyone of them is different even if it's the same type of business ie.. ( hamburger Joints )

The Main thing is to take your time and learn... The first hood you clean will probably be the nastyest one in town..
But if you work hard and keep your prices up ( and of course have the stomach for it )
you will find out real quick if this is what you want to do for a living..

There is one thing that a hood cleaning school or anyone can not teach you and that is
HOW TO SELL YOURSELF !!!

When you sell yourself to a customer he will trust you and call you for everything..

I had a customer of mine call from an italian restaurant the other day and ask me if I knew a good place to buy rags and drop clothes ??

Go Figure...
 
Interesting perspective from someone who's never attended our school. Maybe you're referring to the other hood cleaning schools, when you reference not being able to teach how to sell one's self, not the one in Nashville?
 
Hey Rusty,

I think school is a great idea in a way. But hey I am in Mississippi.. When I started with JT in 1989 there were only about 4 vent hood cleaning companies are so in our general area. You Could say we almost felt like inventor's.

Over the years all of the concrete guys and chemical salesman have flooded this market..

I had a crew that I trained one time (They no longer work for me ))) When I was around they did a great job but when I wasn't they did a poor job..
I would like to say one thing about hood cleaning schools is that at least they give my competitor's the advantage of at least doing things right.
That way if I Ever Get the Account I dont have to clean up the mess that inexperienced cleaners leave behind.

You know what's funny..
My customers use me and mty crews because we SHOW UP...
Sounds funny doesn't it..

Let me explain real quick

The fly by night guys in mississippi are one-timers... They Go in wash a hood , never touch the plenum , the duct, the inner curb, the bottem of the fan, the blades, the top of the fan, they don't even check the belt..

Hey so they get $100 or so bucks

3 months later they can't be found..

by the 4 th month the customer calls us back and say's JOE BLOW WON'TSHOW >>>

I say I am going to be there at 10 on tues... Im in the parking lot at 9:30 on tues..

so all i was saying is you can teach a guy to clean a hood

But you cant teach him how to be dependable and responsible . this is inherited and a talent.

I do respect what your doing though.. I think it's great that you teach people the right way to do things..

Good Luck
 
Appreciate it. I'm from Mississippi as well (Florence area).

Enjoyed Mississippi's finest public education facility during the mid 70's and then went to private school from then on through high school.

I know exactly what you mean about promptness. 90% of the job is being there on time.

Whenever we have a customer drop us and then come back, we raise their prices $50. As long as they stay with us we don't raise their price. If they skip a sch. cleaning, or leave and come back, we raise their price to market + $50.

Needless to say, we've got some customers that haven't missed a single cleaning in 14 years, and we still only charge them $135, and we've got others who we charge $350 (for the same type job).

We reward loyalty of our customers with stable prices.

If you play the ol' leave and come back game, soon our prices are double what anyone else is charging, and they still pay.

Hoodcleaningschool.com has a very specific target market that we are helping. Those who want to do it right from day one and be very proficient at cleaning hoods and operating a complete hood cleaning company properly.

We combine old school techniques along with new school techniques and expose our students to about as many different real world hood cleanings as we can. Then plug them into a 24/7 online support system with the veterans helping the newbies. We have found this to be a very successful combination.

The knowledge of many helping the few. Since our students are encouraged to think outside the box and be creative and then feed this new knowledge back into the group, we have tremendous improvement on a continuous basis.

It's like having 40 different hood cleaning companies doing research and development on a continual basis and feeding their improvements back into the group. It makes the group stronger for everyone involved.

Look forward to meeting you someday. I'm always impressed when I see other hood cleaning companies doing it right.
 
Good Buddy of mine Lemuel is from florence Mississippi He owns Hydro-Clean.. Just Left from over there .. We ar on a Joint venture to Laural to clean some kind of oven at a plant that makes transformers.. Cool to get drug out on my night off....
 
But you cant teach him how to be dependable and responsible . this is inherited and a talent.
Click to expand...
Very hard to find that talent in people anymore..
 
Just thought I would bring this back up - I needed a good laugh to start the new year.
 
I'm just thought i'd kick this horse a few times.......yep might be dead...
 
Not Dead Yet

Still here. Have had an excellent year so far properly training, qualifying, and certifying fellow kitchen grease exhausters.

Isn't it nice to know that the guys and gals we train actually know how to clean hoods the proper way, just like you always wanted?

But seriously, How's everyone been?
 
HOLY CRAP...........look who's here!!! How you been Rusty?
 
Hey lou, been meaning to ask, are you an eastside or west side guy?
 
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