[Stephen Dwyer]

Hello

I live in the Birmingham area and am considering starting up my own window cleaning business with a friend in the next couple of months.  I have already looked at a great number of threads on this forum and have found them to be most useful.  As I am so inexperienced however there are still a few points that I am unsure about with which I could use some advice. 

1) In the event of a lengthy spell of bad weather such as heavy rain is it still possible to work as normal?  If not then how does one go about completing the work?  I imagine it would be ok not to work for a day or two but what do you do if it rains steadily for a week? 

2)  Would I be correct in thinking that if there is a window that is hard to reach, or one situated directly above a slanted extension that some sort of extendable cleaning pole should be used?  If the answer to this is "yes" then is such a pole hard to use for someone inexperienced and do you use it whilst standing on the geound or from half way up a ladder? 

3)  Is it mandatory to buy a car roof rack for ladders or can you get by with using a ladder which folds down so that it is small enough to fit inside a car?  I don't even know if such a ladder exsists so what generally would be the smallest ladder that a window cleaner can get away with using? 

4)  Is it possible just to use fairy liquid as a cleaning fluid or is it best to buy a more powerful cleaning agent designed more specifically for window cleaners? 

Please help me with these problems, any assistance will be greatly appreciated. 

[Trevor Knight]

1) In the event of a lengthy spell of bad weather such as heavy rain is it still possible to work as normal?  If not then how does one go about completing the work?  I imagine it would be ok not to work for a day or two but what do you do if it rains steadily for a week? 

In the 15 years I have been in this industry I have never suffered a solid week of rain. However, if it is on/off rain I just work through it. You may also have gutters and conservatories to clean if the weather is really nasty. Otherwise just keep going, explain to your customers that you CLEAN right throughout the year in all weathers, then they will understand when you arrive when its raining.

2)  Would I be correct in thinking that if there is a window that is hard to reach, or one situated directly above a slanted extension that some sort of extendable cleaning pole should be used?  If the answer to this is "yes" then is such a pole hard to use for someone inexperienced and do you use it whilst standing on the geound or from half way up a ladder? 

Its all about practice, I suggest getting a pole and trying it at home before cleaning a customers windows.
3)  Is it mandatory to buy a car roof rack for ladders or can you get by with using a ladder which folds down so that it is small enough to fit inside a car?  I don't even know if such a ladder exsists so what generally would be the smallest ladder that a window cleaner can get away with using? 

I would advise a roof rack, its far quicker and probably safer than a collapsable ladder, that would drive me nuts every house having to unfold it and put it together.

4)  Is it possible just to use fairy liquid as a cleaning fluid or is it best to buy a more powerful cleaning agent designed more specifically for window cleaners? 

Personal preference, I have used Fairy since day 1, others on here will use commercial products, its just down to personal choice really

Please help me with these problems, any assistance will be greatly appreciated. 

Hope that helps, best of luck.

Trev

[Stephen Dwyer]

Thanks for the help.