[Erithwc]

done a gutter clean today what a cock up i made £45 for two hours work i don't know what i was thinking when i measured it up in my head  

under priced and found it really hard going so need to pick your experienced brains.

1, used a gardiners medium dual trim brush with a little tfr would a stiff gardiners sill brush be better ?

2, underpriced the job looked up at the gutter and guessed 5 meters at the back and five meters at the front  the size was bigger im sure so do you guys measure it up with one of these



3, the price what do you charge for cleaning out side only or cleaning and clearing the guttering

This is one leasson i will learn from 

Thanks for any help paul

[mister bit]

i think it would take longer on a unicycle can't see the benefit have you tried a pogo stick?

[Erithwc]

i think it would take longer on a unicycle can't see the benefit have you tried a pogo stick?

Thanks that helps

[mikecam]

done a gutter clean today what a cock up i made £45 for two hours work i don't know what i was thinking when i measured it up in my head  

under priced and found it really hard going so need to pick your experienced brains.

I'd of thought £45 for two hours was ok?

1, used a gardiners medium dual trim brush with a little tfr would a stiff gardiners sill brush be better ?

They're all different. Some come up like new with just a pure water wash, others need a lttle 'something'. If you can you're better to do a small test first when you go to price it so you know what to expect, and you can tell the customer what to expect.

2, underpriced the job looked up at the gutter and guessed 5 meters at the back and five meters at the front  the size was bigger im sure so do you guys measure it up with one of these.....

I'm not sure you have underpriced it, just wash or wash and empty ? It may be down to your inexperience why its took you so long to do. You're wasting your time with them measuring wheels on small jobs, they're only really for calculating on large/massive jobs where trying to guess time is going to be difficult.

3, the price what do you charge for cleaning out side only or cleaning and clearing the guttering

Depends upon if its for a regular customer or a casual/one off enquiry.  I'd only wash the gutters if i was going to clean all the windows as it will drip all over them so i'd make it into a full house clean. Price depends upon size of house. Emptying gutters probably minimum charge of £40 going upwards.



[/quote]

[SB Cleaning]

45 seems ok to me for 2 hours work.

Greedy git Erith

[Blue Frog Systems]

what type of house
Any access problems like a conny or working over an extension  or loads of junk in the garden ?

[Carl@Cwc]

i normally count in between brackets as a metre and they are well short of that ,and then add the window cleaning on at the end.

[Blue Frog Systems]

Ive done that many of these jobs i now know how long it will take just by looking. You have the basis of how long that particular job will take so go from there from now on.

[Erithwc]

Thanks for the replys the customer is a regular £16 five weekly i priced the gutters up a £3 per meter just to clean if i was to clean and clear it would have been £5-£6 per meter i think the problem lies with me not measuring then guttering up properly.

The job was under priced i aim for £30-35 per hour so i should have earned £60-70 for the two hours worked   

You live and learn next time i will have a big tape measure in the van to measure up
once i've done a few i will get better a feel for the pricing side of it gutter pricing is new to me 

Paul

[dmlservices]

Easy to measure up , gutter comes in 4 mtr lengths ,  fascia in 5 mtr lengths, just   count up how many full lengths  there are and how many part lengths.

Daz

[dazmond]

outside gutter cleaning and soffits can be good add ons.i mainly just use pure if there not too bad.

i soak the whole gutter in pure water then wfp clean then i sometimes put a cloth in a fixiclamp on my trad pole to mop up the drips.

on a 3-4 bedroom house even with some extra bits of guttering/soffits on the sides etc they never take longer than an hour.

i earn between £40-£60 an hour on these jobs.once you ve cleaned a few you can really get em cleaned to a good standard a lot faster!!

i have one to do next week.small 3 bed semi £10 for the windows and £50 for outside gutters/fascias.itll take me under  90 mins including set up time and driving to my next job.

[dazmond]

£45 for 2 hours work cleaning gutters and fascias is not enough money for me as can  earn more just on maintenance window cleaning alone.gutter/fascia cleaning is harder work and i class it as specialist cleaning requiring more effort and it takes me away from my regular window cleaning work so i charge a premium.

i dont particular like cleaning them unless i make £40-£60 an hour out of them then i quite enjoy them!!

i get refused a fair bit when customers ask me to "quickly go over that gutter with that pole thingy will you!"as they think itll only be an extra tenner or so!when i say ill clean all outside gutters/fascias/soffits for £50-£60 they come up with "ill think about it!" or can you clean them next time your around?(best answer!!)

[bobplum]

From what i can gather on this forum there appears to be two school of thoughts on the this subject

it seems to come across as a specialist job,ie dry vacumn cleaning/using the wfp,etc and seems to command a high price or throw the ladders up and a quick £40.00  for a couple of hours,i must admit i seem to be the latter and i tend to clean the inside and outsides with my hand,spray cleaner,cloths rather than use the pole.
if i was cleaning a semi which may only have guttering on the front and back to me £40.00 is good
i would point out in most if not all cases there is two of us doing it,one on the ladder the other footing it if not two of us then i use a bag of sand to weight the ladder

(look out in coming elf and safety missiles)

[Perfect Windows]

£3 a metre if they are at first floor.

A good pace is a metre.  No-one will argue.

I go along the whole length spraying with pure.  This is the single most important step.

Back to the start and clean the gutter along a full side.  Then along and do the supports from both sides.

Then full length of side along fascias.

Then same with soffits.

Finish the house then switch off flow and wipe off drips with brush head (shake dry frequently).

Never used chemicals, not once.  If they are absolutely minging I might use a dab of Fairy liquid but I reckon cleaning anything off takes longer than doing it with pure.

I reckon at that price and that method you should be able to exceed £60 an hour easily.  Bear in mind that that rate is three minutes a metre.  I've done houses where it's been a minute a metre.

Vin

[Smudger]

if your rate is £30 p/h standard window cleaning then you (IMO) should be looking for £40 to £45 p/h
for  1 off ( specialist ) work

does the job require a seperate call out ? - don't forget you have had to measure out / look at the job / chat and explain etc.... its'all time out of your day.

people are less likely to query soffit/fascia/gutter pricing as it's just that bit further up - and house gables are a real money earner.

we all have to learn and the odd mistake here and there is a good teacher on not underpricing in the future.

i would ditch the sill brush - too heavy and slow - gardiners DT dual trim is quick fits up the back of the guttering and light to work with

Darran

[AuRavelling79]

I charged £100 for a 30's semi with a 5 faceted bay and a gable point in upvc above this window. Also included some low level guttering on a rear extension and the garage door and all windows.

Took two of us one hour 30m including custy supplied coffee and viennese whirls (yum).

So £33 per man hour.