We are often asked these questions, primarily from prospective customers.  We hope you find the answers useful.

As at 1 November 2011 we have the following Care Plan & One-off valet/detail vacancies available:

• 1 x monthly Care Plan.
• 2 x 6-monthly Care Plans.
• One-off valets/details; our diary for one-off work is now closed for 2011 and will open again in April 2012.

If you are interested in any of these openings please contact us to discuss matters further.

Care Plans »»

One Off Valets and Details »»

This is extremely unlikely (sorry) for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, we are always busy with our regular customer base and any free days we do have tend to become filled due to rained-off valets being rebooked.  Cumbria is a wet place.

Secondly, we do not price work without seeing the vehicle first.  It is impossible to use our expertise to give you best advice without inspecting your car.

Our normal lead time to fit a major valet into our schedule is a couple of months.  We integrate new customers into our busy schedule via our Soft Start process (please visit the Care Plans page in the main menu for more details).

Many of our potential customers think a valet is the same single service offering carried out by every valeter in the UK.  Valet specifications vary enormously from one company to another and even we have 5 different exterior valet options.

In reality the question, “how much is a valet?”, is as pointless as”‘how much is a house?”‘, “how much is a suit?”, “how much is a holiday?” etc.

The variables that affect the price are many.  To determine our most suitable service (and hence price) we factor in the condition of the car, the size of the car, the protection levels the owner requires and of course customer preferences and any particular problems they require solving.

This is why we genuinely don’t have an answer to the question until we inspect the vehicle.

The galleries of the cars that we look after are all annotated with the service carried out on them.  Cross-referencing this with the price guide in the website Information Centre (on the right hand side of the page) will give a rough indication of valet and detail prices for good condition vehicles.

Yes we do.  But be warned, you’ll probably become a regular customer of ours!

Every year we carry out a number of ‘one-off’ commissions, usually higher end valets and details.

Due to our large customer base and the vagaries of the Cumbrian weather, we usually fit these in between April and September.

Please try and book us a long way ahead if you want a ‘one-off’ service for a particular date and don’t want to be disappointed by our non-availability.

Yes we do.  We do not have premises. We are a van based mobile service.

Valet interiors only?  No we don’t.

Clean single seats?  No we don’t.

Deal with vomit, urine and stuff dogs leave on the streets which is now unfortunately all over your carpets and pedals?  No we don’t, not for one-off customers.  For our regular customers we will deal with the problem and will even try and smile when we do it.

Provide a cheap wash service?  No we don’t.

Clean commercial vehicles?  No we don’t except where a regular customer has a business with commercial vehicles that they want cleaning.

Provide a professional service with great attention to detail?  Of course.  Just give us a call and put us to the test.

The short answer is no.  However, in very light rain we may be able to carry out mini-valets.

Here’s why the answer is no;

Light to heavy rain - wax & sealants do not adhere to wet surfaces + in heavy rain grit is continually bounced up onto the lower reaches of the cars paintwork which is obviously not good news.  Interiors are impossible to valet as door trims and upholstery get soaking wet plus windows suffer from heavy condensation.  We know that some valeting companies work during rain but we think you would be wasting your money which doesn’t square well with our VFM approach.

Snow/ice – apart from the obvious safety issues in low temperatures, typically below 3 Celsius, the water from out pressure washer will contact freeze on the vehicles paintwork.  This leaves a coating of dirty ice that cannot safely be removed until temperatures rise again.  Attempting to remove hard snow and ice with a pressure washer can cause scratches on the vehicle.

High winds – these blow dirt and grit across the vehicle, ditto some of our smaller tools and appliances can easily ‘lift off’ thus exposing the vehicle to needless risk.

In all of these conditions we will not carry out any valeting work and will rebook your appointment to a mutually convenient date.

Should your valet have to be rebooked (mainly due to bad weather) we will endeavour to do so as quickly as possible.

Each month we ’save’ a small number of days for this circumstance plus we can occasionally use our scheduled non-working days too.

However, from November through to February, shorter daylight hours make rescheduling major valets virtually impossible.

To avoid disappointment, we tend to schedule only mini-valets during these months as we can usually rearrange these quite quickly.

No. Clenz Ltd is wholly owned and operated by Nick Laurie.

Whether or not to have a dealer applied sealant application for a new car is a question we are often asked.   We have extensive experience of examining cars that have been treated with a variety of well known branded sealants and have yet to find evidence that they last the 3-5 years that is claimed.  Generally, a properly applied sealant will last up to 12 months and this is conditional on the car being regularly and thoroughly cleaned.

Prices quoted for such treatments typically range from £250 to £450.   Sealant ‘kits’ cost a small fraction of this price and they take around 2 hours to apply.  Food for thought.

Our New Car Detail costs far less than this, it uses state-of-the-art products and prior to sealing we carry out a thorough deep clean to a standard that few dealerships will achieve.

What sealants do:

• Provide UV light protection to paintwork .  Over a long period of time UV light can cause the outermost layers of paint to oxidise and fade.  This was a major problem in the past but is less significant with the latest in paint technology.
• Sealed surfaces are slicker and will help prevent dirt and other contaminants from sticking to the paint surface.
• Sealants provide a durable finish and last longer than waxes.
• They provide a superb base for wax coatings.  We apply a wax coating as standard.

What sealants do not do:

• The average car has around 120 microns of paint protecting it.  Modern paint is extremely hard yet it is still fairly easy to scratch it.  A typical sealant coating will be a fraction of a micron thick and is not as hard as paint.  Therefore, a sealant coating will not prevent your car from being scratched.
• Whilst a sealant will help prevent dirt etc from sticking to paintwork it will not magically keep it clean.  It will still require washing almost as frequently as a car with unsealed paintwork.

Do we recommend sealant applications?  Yes we do.  Properly applied a sealant will provide a good level of protection to your new car and is an excellent purchase providing you are aware of their limitations.

Our New Car Detail is a high quality service that gives you more than a dealer applied sealant package.  It also costs far less.

For more information please follow the link.

New Car Detail »»