Haunted House....and cleaning fees

[SimsPiano@AOL.COM]

This is my 1st post to this group.  I've been tuning for money for almost one 
year now and business is still slow.  But I love it and plan to continue 
since it's getting better.

My question:  Today I went to tune and clean an extremely dirty Mason and 
Hamlin console.  The owner knew it was dirty and I said I may have to charge 
a little extra if I have to take the keys out to get all the dog hair and 
ashes and dust which are gunking up the keys and action.  Well this piano 
looked like a haunted house, with dusty, sooty, spider webs and a truckload 
of dirt and grime and dust, etc.  I vacuumed everwhere I could and used some 
little tiny attachments since I don't have an air compressor.   Shortening 
the story, it took me about 4 hours to get the piano clean enough for me to 
tune!  And this was really some sweaty nasty work.  (Thank God for my dust 
mask.)

Do most of you charge an hourly rate for something like this based on your 
tuning fees (eg, where a tuning would be 2 hours of this rate)??  

Thanks a lot,
Corey Sims
RTP Chapter, North Carolina