[stuartb]

Can anyone help?

I am a trad window cleaner at present and am buying a pole system in a couple of months time. I have a few questions to ask and would be grateful if anyone could give me some sound advice.

The main question on my mind is, what problems will I encounter when starting cleaning with a WFP bearing in mind all the houses on my round have been cleaned various detergents over the last two years. I have quite a varied selection of houses and types of windows. Some have wooden frames, many have UPVC with varying qualities of glass.

Q1? the glass in many of the windows varies from house to house, some the seems very smooth and the soap forms an even film across the glass. Other glass is not so slippy and the water droplets pool forming beeds on the glass. Does this effect the clean quality?

Q2? Some frames and sills that I clean are very dirty (spiders webs, dead flies, dust and grime). Can they be cleaned equaly as well with the pole sytem as by hand with a cloth?

Q3? Are spiders webs and grime from the ledges etc transmitted from the sills and frames and then ends up on the glass because the brush is dirty? Or am I talking nonsense?

Q4? I know initally I wil have to remove the detergent from the windows in order to get good drying results? How much of a problem is this? And how long will it take me to sort the windows out to get good results?

Q5? I have found a company called www.cleaningspot.co.uk. Are there self build sytems any good as they work out much cheaper as a brodex sytem?

Any advice much appreciated and please feel free to write down any usefull stuff I have failed to ask.

Thanks in advance
Stuart

[Feen]

Stuart, Basically all the answers to your questions are here (somewhere ). I'd suggest you read posts, search for old posts on the topics you're interested in and you'll learn what you want to know. Good luck. Believe me you'll not regret the switch

[Londoner]

Yes, same advice as Feen, go back on this forum. Everything you want is there.

[Dean Aspects]

Experience counts for a lot some of the questions may seem big now but once you try wfp for yourself you will see that it is easier than you think
Learn on your own house windows first practice on friends and familys windows take your time and learn from your mistakes if then you still have problems then ask away
It does take a while to learn all about it and their are many pros and cons different way of working completely to trad the early stages can be the hardest times and you will no doubt wonder why the hell you spent all the money on the stuff but it does become easier and you will love it
Most of your questions have already been asked so as has been said do a search and you will find the answers

Dean

[windowwashers]

Answer to question 4 is use gg3 (softwater area) gg4 (for hard water area) where you have a few months start it now and most of the washing up liquid will be removed from the glass and the edging

[stuartb]

Thankyou for the help, I will start searching and making some changes right now

[Jeff Brimble]

1. Yes, some of the beading ones cause us problems search for the word "phobic"   and "phillic"  2. Yes. 3 Clean from top to bottom. Not everyone always clean the frames.  4. Twice as long but its worth it. 5. Self build try http://www.d.co.uk or click the diy link below.
Hurry up the lights going and Christmas is a difficult time to start.
Save your life go waterfed.

[Feen]

Stuartb, In addition to what I said last night, I'd add this. As you are trad now, use this time to prepare to change to wfp. By that I mean, make sure you do a really good job on the top frames trad, so that when you first do them wfp they are not filthy. Tell your customers that next month you'll be doing the upstairs wfp/downstairs trad or all wfp. Keep them informed. If you have several cleans together, do all the tops first and then the downstairs. This has the two fold benefit of letting the top stop dripping and you are around for longer. Many (older) customer think if you,ve cleaned their windows that quickly, you can't have done a good job.

[SonOfFormby]

Can anyone help?

I am a trad window cleaner at present and am buying a pole system in a couple of months time. I have a few questions to ask and would be grateful if anyone could give me some sound advice.

The main question on my mind is, what problems will I encounter when starting cleaning with a WFP bearing in mind all the houses on my round have been cleaned various detergents over the last two years. I have quite a varied selection of houses and types of windows. Some have wooden frames, many have UPVC with varying qualities of glass.

Q1? the glass in many of the windows varies from house to house, some the seems very smooth and the soap forms an even film across the glass. Other glass is not so slippy and the water droplets pool forming beeds on the glass. Does this effect the clean quality?

Q2? Some frames and sills that I clean are very dirty (spiders webs, dead flies, dust and grime). Can they be cleaned equaly as well with the pole sytem as by hand with a cloth?

Q3? Are spiders webs and grime from the ledges etc transmitted from the sills and frames and then ends up on the glass because the brush is dirty? Or am I talking nonsense?

Q4? I know initally I wil have to remove the detergent from the windows in order to get good drying results? How much of a problem is this? And how long will it take me to sort the windows out to get good results?

Q5? I have found a company called www.cleaningspot.co.uk. Are there self build sytems any good as they work out much cheaper as a brodex sytem?

Any advice much appreciated and please feel free to write down any usefull stuff I have failed to ask.

Thanks in advance
Stuart

Hi Stuart, I bought my system from cleaning spot (drove to Wimbledon picked up all the parts,tank etc),they give you a diagram of the set up(very straightforward), and with a little help from a friend installed it in a few hours.You're right, they are cheap, but by no means cheap and nasty.....Touch wood, I have had no problems with the system yet (only been operating it 6 weeks tho).
As for teething problems with the actual clean, there is a piece of literature on this site somewhere which explains pros cons etc, some say hand it out to new customers, some don't, personally I just read it and gleaned enough information to explain the basics to any customers that asked, but alot don't, and as you probably know already, alot are out anyway, so as long as clean is good, don't even question how it was done.

Lee   

[alanwindows]

when setting up the most impotant thing is to get the right system for you first . if you dont get the right system no mater what hellp you get from here the job will be hard
if you wont to chat about what system to get be it van back pack or trolley im more than happy to try and help
 I sell pureease and i all so window clean so iv been there and dun it the hard way geting the wrong system for the job i was doing at the time (you can ring me on 07817991412 if it will help)

[stuartb]

Thanks to everyone for all the help, I know we are all busy and I really appreciate it.
I have decided to give all the trade clean for one month but with pure water, hard work with no slip on the blade but should remove some of the detergent for when I get the pole sytem in a few weeks time.
I've also been telling every single customer that as of next month I will using a WFP system and giving them an explanation of how how it works. I decided to be honest and laso told them that it can be considerably faster than ladders and but I had to swap to WFP to allow my business to grow. They seemed to appreciate the honesty and many said they thought it was a very good move for me! This has done my 'pre WFP' nerves some good.

Thanks again for the help, I will let you all know how it goes.
Stuart

[M & C Window Cleaning]

I've also been telling every single customer that as of next month I will using a WFP system and giving them an explanation of how how it works. I decided to be honest and laso told them that it can be considerably faster than ladders and but I had to swap to WFP to allow my business to grow. They seemed to appreciate the honesty and many said they thought it was a very good move for me! This has done my 'pre WFP' nerves some good.

This is what I did. It has worked quite well so far. I'm just completing my first time round and even the ones I hadn't told haven't been much of a problem. Many of them have shown an awareness for me to think and work more safely. A small number have shown a 'couldn't care less' attitude toward my safety and to be honest if they don't come round I don't want them on my round anyway. One of these I've lost but I've gained quite a bit of new custom since I started with the WFP all at better prices.

Two or three years ago I'd never heard of WFP, then when I first heard of it I was very negative about it in my own mind. Then I did loads of research on it, spoke to others who had made the change and joined this forum.  Now I'm really enjoying it.

[NWH]

Do all window`s WFP,don`t do half and half.