[clairekuccuk39]

Hi everyone,

Have recently made the move over to wfp and as i now have someone working with me, the plan was for him to do downstairs traditional and me to do upstairs with wfp. 
The problem is all the water running down from the upstairs windows onto the downstairs ones.  Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you get around it?
Am i missing something really obvious? Also i seem to be getting through a 25ltr tank of water for the upstairs of just one house. Does this sound normal or not?  Its not as if im scrubbing dirty frames because i always did them when i was traditional so they arnt paticularly dirty or anything.

Any ideas much appreciated
Ahmet 

[AuRavelling79]

Ok Ahmet here goes:-


Do all the upstairs on your house first, starting with windows that have a downstairs window directly below. By the time you get to window three or four your mate can start window one below. If there are any downstairs windows without a window above then he can get started on these.

The next house should be nearby and if so you go and start the upstairs. Usually you will get ahead of your mate.

When you are getting too far ahead go back and help him downstairs until you've almost caught up with your last upstairs windows, then go back to upstairs and get ahead a bit. Work like this throughout the day and the upstairs will have finished dripping long enough for the downstairs to be done.

25 litres is a lot for upstairs only on any suburban semi of three or four bedrooms. I Use 25 litres on a whole typical 1930's detached suburban house.

Hope this helps.

[windows_chepstow]

Ahmet,

25 litres should be enough to do a whole house, but on first cleans it is better to use plenty of water.

Your speed will pick up on subsequent cleans and you'll use less water.

Working in pairs doing tops only with a WFP requires a certain amount of team work.  After a few months you'll be burning along.

I work with Wor Lass and I rarely see her these days.

Pick a start point; somewhere with a conservatory or with a sloping roof and get the squeegy-user to start work there.

I find doing tops with a WFP is usually far quicker that a trad user doing the bottoms with a squeegy (especially Wor Lass who isn't the fastest squeegier in the west).

Then the WFP user should get ahead and could end up maybe five houses ahead of the trad worker.

After you've done your round three of four times, you'll both be slicker as your new working method.

[Mr. S]

Malc, when u say go back and help on the downstairs, do you mean the person with the pole does this with the pole or does he carry a hip bucket and squeegee?

Please clarify as will be wfp hopefully next week!

[brett walker]

When im working on my own i wfp all tops i have got a bucket on a belt i strap this through the handle of my 25ltr barrel.  A splash of fairy in it and keep topping it up with pure water this saves carrying a bucket round with you plus tou get the splashes and drips from the top windows

job done

Brett

[Andrew McCann]

Its the good old first time around with WFP..  brings back memories 

That water use is real high Ahmed. Even for 1st time cleans with WFP. If its the average type semi you are talking about I make it 25 ltrs for 5 windows. Way to high in my opinion. This of course will contribute to the problem with water running down everywhere. Half of that use would be more like it. Like using trad you will get the knack of it and speed up as time goes on.

Good advice from the rest of the mob as usual. If we are working in pairs we try to look for the windows with a porch or something like that to start at then the trad guy doing downstairs can get straight to it. Then work to the end of the run doing the upstairs and go back to where the trad guy is and help him to the end of the run.

Once you have done your round a couple of times try cutting your flow rate down to around 1 ltr per minute. You will be faster with the pole and also really all your cleans will be just maintenance ones.

Good tip about the BOAB Brett BTW. We have been wearing then on a belt as usual doing the same as you. Will give your method a go now   Except for the Fairy. We use a detergent called Evans high class. Tried them all and found this one to be fantastic. Its not expensive and because you are using pure for the solution you only need a very small amount. It even smells nice 

All the guys around this way use it and swear by it.

Cheers

Andrew

Cheers

Andrew

[Ian_Giles]

I've little to add to that, the above posts are all spot on

But wow!

That water usage is way high!! 10-13 litres on an average upstairs semi should be more than enough on a first time clean.
On repeat cleans you should be using no more than 8 or 9 litres on an upstairs.
By and large, 15 litres should be enough to do a standard semi.
But that takes practice and confidence.

The flow rate that I personally prefer is about 2 litres a minute, that allows me to work at the speed that I feel comfortable with.
But that is something that varies from individual to individual.

Best of luck though!!

Ian

[s.hughes]

I dont wfp on all properties, in fact very few but I found that I also 1st of all went through about 25 litres a house, just tops. Problem was I was soaking the windows to much, far to much and of course at this rate it was faster to trade the glass. After a couple of tries I now dont use much water at all. its just down to being confident with the system.

Andrew where do you get that evans high class from?


Steve

[genesis_windows]

When im working on my own i wfp all tops i have got a bucket on a belt i strap this through the handle of my 25ltr barrel.  A splash of fairy in it and keep topping it up with pure water this saves carrying a bucket round with you plus tou get the splashes and drips from the top windows

job done

Brett

a thing we used to do when abseil window cleaning was to carry a 1ltr bottle in a pouch with soapy water rather than hanging a bucket so many floors up!
when i used to do domestics the trad way i did it then also and was never slowed down by carrying a bucket.
just used to squirt a line on either side of the applicator and away i went, didnt have loads of soapy water to mop off the ledgs after either, still do it now when doing insides.

[alpha]

Me and the wife had the same problem so we went over to wfp only,
we are now getting around the work in less time and all is well with the customers.

[windows_chepstow]

I was thinking about this post today; the saddo I am.

I believe Ahmet is new to window cleaning and if he hasn't yet got a compact(ish) sort of round, it's going to be difficult to clean the tops of a handfull of houses, then go back after to do the bottoms.

If I had a 'pepper pot' round, I'd WFP tops and bottoms.

[clairekuccuk39]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. it has been a big help.
In reply to Tosh's post, ive only been a window cleaner for just over a year so there is still alot to learn.
Also, if anyone can let me know where i can buy some Evans high class detergent. id like to try it.

Many thanks

ahmet