Window Cleaning.

[Scott]

My upstairs windows turn inside out and the other half does them, so costs me diddly squitunk:

Its probably costing you more than anyone else then!

My mother and her fella and my brother in law had a window cleaning business in the late 80's in our home town. Started because we had a 3 story town house and no one would do the top floor for us. She did all the research she could, checked out the competition first and got them to price our house. Even down to how many houses there were in the town (10,303 at the time i remember it well)

She paid the guys £1 per house, albeit back then the average house was only £3.50/4.00. She did well out of it and had a few lads work for her. We used to go canvassing and collecting on an evening. Eventually the lads all ended up starting their own rounds as the equipement layout wasnt too much, ladder, buckets scrim and squeege etc. Not so easy to start up now if you dont have the cash.

I watched our local cleaner 'One man and his bucket' clean my next door neighbours house, he charges them £16 and it took him exactly 16 minutes from set up to pack away. Not bad ££ IMO.

 

[Andy Allen]

not to put the damperners on things but do you think now is the right time to be setting up a new buisness.
the reason i say this is i have just had to cancle my w/c with work being so up and down cut backs had to be made.
i dont know what the situation is like down your way but with some people struggling to pay the bills w/c can be one less bill to pay.

 

[faithhealer]

every man and his dog walks round my way with a ladder on his shoulder

 

[united]

I'm sure Prem Tiler owns a window cleaning company, maybe he can give some advice

 

[enduro]

A mate of mine has an estate agents....his window cleaner charges him £12...takes him 4 minutes to do, then he is onto the next shop...Got a few people in different areas near me going to get quotes for me...Not a lot of money to set up, so still tempted....

 

[Gazzer]

Just the front of my house gets cleaned by the window cleaner, 1 Large wide window upstairs, 4ftx 4ft kitchen window amd glass the side of the front door = £3.

 

[Spud]

we pay our window cleaner £12 we have a standard sized 3 bed house with a conservatory, he is the old fashioned bucket and squeege type with long ladders ,he is feeling threatened as the long pole guys are coming into his turf and taking alot of his work

 

[enduro]

we pay our window cleaner £12 we have a standard sized 3 bed house with a conservatory, he is the old fashioned bucket and squeege type with long ladders ,he is feeling threatened as the long pole guys are coming into his turf and taking alot of his work

People in my area are getting fed up with the water fed pole cleaners, say they don't do a very good job, if i was going to start i think it would be the traditional way.

 

[faithhealer]

Enduro, some food for thought mate

This ie Deans website, Deans Cleaning Services - Home looks like the tiling one has bit the dust.

Just had a flyer through the door, according to this advert, the advantages of 'pole cleaning are,
difficult areas reached(above conservatorys etc)
No detergent used (puried water) therefore enviromentally friendly
No ladders therefore no looking through windows
purified water keeps windows cleaner longer (no soap residue to attract dirt apparently)

other selling points were
window frames cleaned foc
one offs / fortnightly /monthly cleans
Reliable friendly and trustworthy

 

[mattyg]

I used to deliver the water units for a company in Southport called Brodex not sure if they still do it may be worth pricing with them.

 

[mikethetile]

this process works by reverse osmosis, water attracts dirt but if you reverse the osmosis it will repel dirt leaving only clean water on the windows , the process also purifies the water as all minerals and impurities in the water are repelled from the water, purified water wont leave chalk marks on the glass

the only downside is the water becomes slightly acidic and does affect the furniture to patio doors etc

as the water dries without leaving any residue to the glass the glass stays looking cleaner longer

 

[DHTiling]

:lol::lol::lol::lol: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmAeijj5cM]YouTube - George Formby - When i'm cleaning windows[/ame]

 

[TheWrightTiler]

5 quid inside and out

4 bed house

 

[enduro]

Go for it mate but you don't need to splash out on the system, i've got quite strong views on this one being local. till tomorrow, sorry

So what were you going to say on this subject...

 

[Prem Tiler]

I can't believe I missed out on this subject.

As you know this is my area of expertise. I've been cleaning windows for 10 years now, 7 years of which for my old man who lets just say will never worry about bills. I set up on my own in 2007 and would say it is a great business. I have never worried about £ as work is regular as clock work. while every one else was wondering when the next job was coming in through the recession I was turning it away because I just didn't have enough time in the day.

P£ices differ from area to area but on a whole you can really lose. I won't go in to detail what your average window cleaner earns but I can promise you this. You will never find a poor one!

Trad V's WFP! I started out trad on commercial work and mastered the trade from aerial platform to ladder work. You all know I do like to blow my own trumpet but this really is the truth I am by far the best window cleaner I have ever met or worked with. But it is hard graft. No more than tiling but in a different way. need to be fit to do really well at it. most trad window cleaners are skinny for a reason.

WFP is the best ££ I ever spent. I doubled earnings over night. I lost a few customers at 1st because some people just don't like change but for a house that used to take me 20 mins now takes me 5-10 so I do twice as many.

Winters are hard. Got to be one of the worst jobs in the uk in the winter but the summers awesome! Some one said in this thread ''every one has a ladder on there shoulder'' yea but I bet there are alot more houses than window cleaners!

IMO domestic market is a better bet for earnings. Every one chases commercial work and the H&S aggro is a pain in the butt. I've cleaned some of the South's most iconic building and racked it in (well the old mad did) but men in suits make it not worth the effort for me.

There are many ways of setting up a wfp system to suit different budgets if your really interested let me know and I'll give you more advise.