[Scott Blaney]

Hi,

I have the opportunity to tender for a one off clean of windows on a large development of flats.

The client has actually have numbers of windows involved at each development, however a price per window is probably going to be too expensive.


How would you price these?  A day rate?

For info, one development has 1000 windows..  Max height is 4 floors.  Being done by WFP.

[Splash & dash]

Is it a builders clean ? Why is it only a one off job ? Doesn't sound worth the hassle unless you charge 2 or 3 times the normal rate as will probably be filthy and take a long time

[Scott Blaney]

Nope, not a builders.

By the sounds of things they currently get cleaned every 6 months. 

Probably their idea of keeping costs down only doing twice a year...

[Don Simon]

Nope, not a builders.

By the sounds of things they currently get cleaned every 6 months. 

Probably their idea of keeping costs down only doing twice a year...

Work out approx how long it will take and add 20%  and then times by your day rate.  Don't go in cheap you will regret it unless you have very little work

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

we have two blocks the same as this and when you go back to clean them they can be very dirty ,  after all the extra cleaning you will know you have done a days work for sure  as for price wise we charge day rate 50% for these ,

pointless  going in cheaper then what you can earn on a normal house a day as you may as well stop on them and earn the same money for a lot less work

[NWH]

Cleaned many a block like that covered in labels cement etc only for it to get passed onto some other WFPoler to get all the ongoing easy cleans,unless you are desperate for the work I wouldn't even bother. I would only ever do a clean like that these days that was owned by a association I already do work for,they stand there look you right in the eye and say yeah you'll get the contract blah blah when it's handed over,I would walk away you could look at a 1000 Windows and say £1000 or what ever you can bet some fools out there prepared to clean it for an1/3 of that these days.

[Marc Stock]

I'm with NWH on this.

I wouldn't bother. It's going to take a good few cleans to get them up to a good standard. During that time YOU WILL get complaints, it could take ages to get your money as all the individual sites will have their own residential association budgets, some of which will probably hold back payment becouse "they werent cleaned proprely"

I used to do 30 odd sites for GEM it started off ok but eventually cheaper operators came in and I started loosing work so I sold off what was left...best move.

[NWH]

I did a big block for an association i do other work for i started cleaning them section by section as it went up got labels cement off till it was finished and continued to clean it,a new jobsworth caretaker manager came in said she wanted a chat about what I do etc I said I clean all the windows lol. As the months went by all I heard was she new a lovely lad that used to do the other block 20 miles away,2 months later I got an email saying you are no longer needed to clean this particular site. Jobs like this there is no loyalty at all nothing,I wouldn't care how big it was if it was covered in labels silicone and cement and it meant the price of a good holiday I'd still walk away now.

[Splash & dash]

We do a number of blocks of flats for management company's every year I think I will loose a number of them but so far we haven't  I view them as nice little earners but am prepared  to loose them to  cheaper company's as I won't do them for peanuts like some will

[windowswashed]

If it's a one off job what do you gain from it. If you aint afraid to quote then give them an unrealistic quote and don't expect a reply back. Personally I wouldn't touch a one off but if I did I would ask a minimum three times my going rate and if I got it I would do the bare minimum required to get by

[NWH]

It would make no difference to me if I got 3 x 4x whatever I wouldn't be prepared to go through 3-4 packs of razor blades and all the crap that goes with doing that kind of job,most of the time regardless of what rubbish they tell you like don't worry you'll get the job after the first clean I wouldn't be interested.
A builders clean imo should be what it says a builder should do it,the way some windows get left on a site is a disgrace some will never get clean to a good standard and will become scratched regardless of how careful you are,my view is why even bother to take these jobs on. A private house that's had windows replaced I can see ongoing potential but a 1000 window site is not,I'd rather be picking up dog poo on community service lol.

[dazmond]

i never do builders cleans.cant be bothered.give me maintenance cleans any day.

[jonboywalton75]

+1 Daz

[NWH]

Some may think your wrong I'm gonna get this job long term , the chances are it's already lined up for a firm that do other sites for the same firm,its
been known for the window cleaner to sub the initial clean to a local window cleaner in the area on the promise it's ongoing. He then emails the local bloke saying we have decieded to use another window cleaner but thanks for wasting your time getting all that crap off for me if another comes up I'll email you lol 😂

[jonboywalton75]

About 10 years ago I did a builders clean
Charged £550.00
Took 2.5 days
Carried on cleaning the house for 6 years at £90 a pop
Took 1.5 hrs to clean each time
I'm bad at maths but I did ok.
I still won't do builder's cleans now, as I have also been stung
For example
Cleaned for 5 hours on new wetherspoons in Chester, they were doing my head in, so I walked off the job, never to return and also never to do a builders clean again.
Rant over