[ant french]

hi peeps im new to this forum but i have sat back and read lots of threads on WC, im going to start WC very soon when i have customers but i have an issue, theres 2 window cleaners in my village who do diff houses and charge diff prices. theres one bloke who has 12 windows and a WC charges him £5.00 is this right, i was looking at charging min 6.50, another window cleaner who does my nans house which has 14 windows and he charges £8.00 so is my rate of £6.50 good?

Also whats the going rate for cleaning conservatories and there roofs?
also what would you charge for guttering.
with my service im saying ill do doors and frames for free to see if it attracts ppl, coz we all know people love something if its free as we think were getting a bargain.
I will be working mon-thurs during school hours 930 - 230 so id be happy if i got say 10 customers a day but thats looking to far ahead i know, i currently have 3 people who want me to do there windows so i guess its a start.

[Stephen Dwyer]

It is hard to say what to charge without seeing the property.  There also seems to be different classes of price depending on what area you are in so what may be cheap to some here on the board may be about the going rate where you are.  The prices you mention do seem a bit cheap though.  I normally charge about £8-10 for a house, sometimes more if it is big.  If the other window cleaners are all charging less than that though then you may have to charge a similar price as otherwise you may struggle to pick up work.  When you start out for the first few months you will still be learning your trade as well so if you charge too much and then don't do a great job the customers may drop you.  Generally though when it comes to price it is a good idea to charge about 50p per window and maybe £1 to £1.50 for bigger windows like bay windows. 

I don't do guttering so I can't advise you on that but for the conservatory roof I would say maybe about £10, perhaps a little more if it is really bad and takes you more than say half an hour. 

[ant french]

ive just got back from pricing a job up and i charged 60p for small windows and 75p for larger windows it all came to 7.80 and she was happy with it, downside is one window is hard to get near but she said i can go inside to get that one and hang out so sounds good.  got another 2 jobs to go and see about tomora aswell so things are looking good and this is all from facebook so far. i just posted on friends walls and there friends just enquire 

[clearlyclean]

I think pricing is a personal think some windows 50p if easy access £1 for 1st floor any awkward ones charge a bit more or leave them bay window about £3-5 but when you do a few houses you'll get to know what to charge comes with experience  I still make mistakes but as long as you make more money than it cost you to clean it then had a result

[ant french]

well good news today, my daughters school are looking into hiring me to do there windows so fingers crossed, thing is i aint got the foggiest what to charge there are about 40 winows all up  quite large aswell

[clearlyclean]

Be cheeky and ask how much is their budget and what the last window cleaner charged or try and work out how long it would take you by comparing speed on other properties and work it out in hours

[ant french]

well from memory sitting here theres about 35 big windows and about 15 small ones, you kno the ones that churches have them little 6x9 glass ones that make up a whole window, i dont like them lol  there up high aswell. i think it would take about 2 hours max without anyone chatting to me. im doing my first day of dropping flyers tomorrow so fingers crossed ill get a few more custys, only doing 100 tho just to test the water. seen a little village nr me that looks dead but has nice gardens so i will try there.

[Ian101]

Hi Ant ... this takes me back  ... I started in Feb this year like you just part time.

One of the best tips I got off this forum was to ALWAYS have a minimum price you will work for which is very tricky when your desperate for your first customers.

Initially my min was £10 which I got every time however as time went on to be honest I do the odd £8 house due to them them being no more than abouy 10 mins i.e. 2 front and 2 back with easy access - couldnt look them in the face and say £10 every 4 weeks.

oh that reminds when you give a price also state clearly how often you will call "that will be £10 once a month Mrs Jones"

Try not to worry what others are charging (within reason) just decide what you are worth and go from there.

[ant french]

oh that reminds when you give a price also state clearly how often you will call "that will be £10 once a month Mrs Jones"



dont you mean every 4 weeks because some months have 5 weeks in them so you would be losing a week here and there lol

the thing i got to come to terms in i got custys dotted all over the place and not in one area so how do i work around this? all that fuel im wasting to go to custy 1 and custy 2.
but i had bad news the school dont want me another geezer from the same village as me has the job. i said what was you willing to pay and they said we want them cleaned every 6 weeks and we can only afford £40. i said fair nuff,  i wouldnt get outta bed for that even though im just starting out. good luck to the geezer who does all them windows for £40 lol. i was willing to go to 50 lowest just because my daughter goes to that school, im running a business not a charity lol

[Ian101]

I just do monthly now not every 4 weeks but whatever works for you. 

[ant french]

im having nothing but trouble with van insurance lol  just got quoted 1967 for a s reg astra van i only passed my test last month but im 31 so why is it so high? the prices these people charge is a joke! :

[clearlyclean]

if you only passed your test your an unknown quantity and insurance always sting you in the first year especially a van you need to really shop around for the best price

[ant french]

finally got a nice quote of 879 for a fiat scudo 1.9D, well chuffed. everythings slotting into place as i wanted it to.

[clearlyclean]

the newer the van the lower insurance will be because it is harder to nick a newer van and genarally we take care of new stuff better than old

[ant french]

guess your right. to save me starting a new topic i had a idea for water fed pole system but not sure if it will work. you know them pressure weed killer things that landscape gardeners use that holds 20L of stuff in them, would one of them connected to a pole work?? would there be enough pressure and water to do a pole system. i was thinking about giving it a go  :

[elite mike]

hi ant

you will need one of these

http://www.purefreedom.co.uk/pure-freedom-compact-reverse-osmosis-systems-p-291.html

one of these

http://www.purefreedom.co.uk/handheld-digital-tds-meter-p-329.html

and for the backpack, go for one of these ESR16 halfway down the page

http://www.johnhewitt.com/wc.htm

this is probably the cheapest way to wfp for you

ps you will need a pole as well

[ant french]

think ill stick with my wagtail on a pole lol

[clearlyclean]

You can DIY a water fed system for about £500 all in you can get a 75 gpd R/O and DI for 100 quid and collect the water in a butt for £30 in B&Q get a trolley truck for £30 and a streamline pumpbox with battery for £250. You can use harris pole £15 from B&Q Brush for £30 and you can pick up some 25 ltr containers off ebay to get you going till the real money comes in and re invest in a carbon pole later.

[ant french]

u can also buy RO water from fish shops for 10p a liter lol i used to use it on my marine tank  i can get discount on ro units aswell my mates manager of world of water, he can sell me a ro unit for 55 quid 

[clearlyclean]

you'll only need about 200ltr max a day if you WFP the tops and trad bottoms so i 50gpd unit would be fine to start with and then upgrade later when you get a larger round