at 1175 you wont get it ! we just quoted one similer size and didn't get the job at 460+vat as we worked it out as a days work foe two men
this i currently done in two days by team of 5! so i was thinking about 2weeks work for me, let see what happen;)
This is when things start to go wrong with a quote.
Chris Turner has broken it down into bite size peices and has 78 townhouses at 20 minutes each. Going flat out with no breaks = 26 hours. Whilst I think this is an excellent way of doing it, my question is; how much extra time do you allow for breaks (moving van etc), because this is included in the time it takes to clean the complex? Another 26 hours?
(For residential we estimate that half the day is spent actually cleaning windows and the other half is spent on the detail - drying doors, unpacking, packing up, writing out tickets, collecting money, etc. On commercial we estimate that we spend about 75 - 80% of our time on the glass and 20 -25% on the detail depending on the job. We have one commercial job where 40% of our time is cleaning windows and 60% is hose management, unlocking and relocking gates etc.)
You say it takes 5 workers 2 days to complete the job. So in effect this is a 10 day job for one person. We don't know how quickly that these workers are working. According to my feeling and Chris' formula we need 54 hours to do the job - providing you are fit and able. So that tells me the gang should be able to do it in less time.
If that's the case then the complex's management can see that the 5 guys are 'taking their time' and so would feel they are paying for this. They won't consider they need to refill the van/vans with water etc. They just see them disappearing down the road.
I would expect, as in most commercial job quotes, they are trying to get a cheaper price and using you as a lever. If your quote comes in cheaper they will approach the company involved to renegotiate their quote. If you are more expensive they will laugh at you. We've experience this many times. They also lie to get your interest hooked. (We had one recently, job to be done every 2 weeks - turned out he wanted the job to be done every 2 or 3 months or when dirty. Time waster).
In cases like this, management want a quality job but only want to pay for a slop and dash job. I would have asked them what I was up against money wise as well. You will get a ball park knowing they have purposely cut the price. In other words they will tell you £400 when in fact they charge £500.
If the management had told me £200 I would immediatley tell them to stick with the current cleaning contractors.
In your quote I would recommend you be very specific about the time schedule you are quoting on. If its once every 3 months then state that. Then state that an adjustment will add to the cost of cleans. So a 4 monthly clean will cost £x and 6 monthly will cost £xx.
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