Mmm,
As Debbie says, interesting post, but if I took 36 minutes to do a 3 bed semi + consrvatory I would be worried
A local pub I clean takes me just under 25 minutes, probably closer to 20 mins if I can get all my timings just right.
Priot to WFP, absolutely flat out out, this pub took me 35 minutes.
It has 5 large upstairs windows on the front, 3 of them large enough to make doing each of them with just the one go up the ladder risky because of over stretching, one window is above a sloping, tiled porch that I had to walk across (didn't get done if it was wet, too slippy)
Downstairs it has 8 of these large windows, 2 moves with the pointer for 4 of them.
Back elevation:
Pointer work on downstairs- 8 windows, all smaller than the front, mostly toilet windows, only 3 bar windows.
Upstairs no ladder needed, large flat roofed balcony- 3 large windows and one old fashioned set of french doors, 6 panes of glass.
This is a £15 account, has always been one I did at absolutely full tilt, always timed myself, price was very tight, I could never get it done under 35 minutes.
My mate, who bought my domestic round off me did three semis in the street opposite in the same time, about £18 and time for a coffee and a chat with one of the customers, and he got back to the pub while I was packing my gear on the car. We had met at the pub & agreed to have a pint after I had finished it and he had finished his 3 accounts.
This guy has done this pub often for me as he usually caretakes my round when I go on holidays, and he always moaned about having to do this pub, he struggled to do it in under 45 minutes
With the WFP I'm doing it with ease in 25 minutes, I still think I'm under priced on it though
I would agree with Ross though, in that in a straight 'race' you can work faster than WFP, on a standard UPVC window, even an upstairs one, were I poised with my brush hovering over the window, and you were up your ladder, applicator at the ready, you would, or should, beat me in a straight race.
I'm not talking about me whipping over the window, barely more than wetting the glass, but of washing the window frame properly and the glass too, rinsing properly.
It's unlikely that traditional window cleaner would win if he also did all of the frames too.
On a single, stand alone, smallish account, I don't think there would be much difference in the two methods.
But the bigger the account, the more WFP will come into its own.
And of course there is simply no comparison with georgian or leaded windows, WFP faster by a considerable margin you will find.
Accounts with Oxidised frames will always be done better with Trad, and quicker too, as the WFP user will have to take a lot more time and care, and will probably not do anywhere near as good a job on these.
Thank god accounts like that are the exception and not the norm
Ian