[Peter DDD]

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting into some WFP work and need some advice from you experts.

For background I mostly do end of tenancy cleaning, carpets etc so this won't be a big part of my work at all but I often get asked by existing clients if we can do exterior windows and it would be nice to do them on some of the bigger houses we do too.

Some of the houses are the big Victorian types in Central London, four and five stories - I don't know what that is in feet!

A trolley will be best for my needs I think and I'll be buying water to start with. I was thinking about the Gardiner backpack but I called them and they said it's only good for about 40-45 feet.

Two trolleys that look ideal are the Pure Freedom Nano and the Xline  25 litre one. The Xline looks like it might stay looking nice a bit longer with the anodised finish and the battery is a bit bigger I believe.

Thoughts on those two, or are there better options?

For the pole I want something that can cover up to 65 feet ideally, I know that will be heavier than I need when doing lower work but as I said it won't be an all day everyday thing.

The Gardiner SMAX50 does 55 feet and with the triple extension another 14. Total weight 4.95kg and about £995+VAT.

The Xline Pro Plus 60 does 65 feet working height and is £1,135+VAT. Their site says it weighs 1.65kg - must be a typo??

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions and p1ss taking greatly appreciated!

[NWH]

Sub it out if you’ve never cleaned windows WFP forget even dreaming about working at 50-60ft.

[deeege]

Using a 5kg, 60ft pole on ground floor and 1st floor work will be absolutely brutal, good luck with that, you’ll be buying yourself a 18-25ft pole in no time at all.

[Splash & dash]

Trolly wise the pure freedom nano is the best one out there we have 3 and use them for  chemical applications not window cleaning but they are awesome things , lite , excellent battery life with the lithium battery will fit through the narrowest of side entrances and without the barrel on it weighs only 12 kg I think it is you can pick it up with one finger .

[KS Cleaning]

This isn’t the sort of job for someone without a lot of WFP’ling experience…..It’s kind of like jumping into a formula 1 car without having any driving experience. Running before you can walk.

[Peter DDD]

Trolly wise the pure freedom nano is the best one out there we have 3 and use them for  chemical applications not window cleaning but they are awesome things , lite , excellent battery life with the lithium battery will fit through the narrowest of side entrances and without the barrel on it weighs only 12 kg I think it is you can pick it up with one finger .

Thanks mate, I've heard nothing but good things about them. Have any of yours got the remote control option, worth getting that do you think?

[Peter DDD]

This isn’t the sort of job for someone without a lot of WFP’ling experience…..It’s kind of like jumping into a formula 1 car without having any driving experience. Running before you can walk.

I'm not planning on going out and cleaning at 60 foot on day one but would like to have the option of the right pole to be able to do so eventually.

Do you often have jobs at that sort of height or are they few and far between?
If so which pole would you recommend?

[NWH]

Few and far 18ft-25ft say to say poles if you need to do the odd Velux or townhouse also a 35ft and all of quality material those 3 will cost 2.5k.

[Splash & dash]

Trolly wise the pure freedom nano is the best one out there we have 3 and use them for  chemical applications not window cleaning but they are awesome things , lite , excellent battery life with the lithium battery will fit through the narrowest of side entrances and without the barrel on it weighs only 12 kg I think it is you can pick it up with one finger .

Thanks mate, I've heard nothing but good things about them. Have any of yours got the remote control option, worth getting that do you think?

We don’t use the remote control no , personally I wouldn’t bother with it but obviously it’s dependent on how you work might be worth having

[Splash & dash]

This isn’t the sort of job for someone without a lot of WFP’ling experience…..It’s kind of like jumping into a formula 1 car without having any driving experience. Running before you can walk.

I'm not planning on going out and cleaning at 60 foot on day one but would like to have the option of the right pole to be able to do so eventually.

Do you often have jobs at that sort of height or are they few and far between?
If so which pole would you recommend?

We do a lot of commercial work at 40-70 feet high it’s specialist work and you do need experience at much lower stuff first . We use the Gardiner ultimate pole with the extension kit to take it up to 73 feet , but this will cost you over 2:5 k so you need a lot of work to justify that expense. You wouldn’t want to be doing ground floor work with it either although couple of windows here and there you could but it’s heavy bulky and collapsed length is long .

[Ggh]

Hire a mewp.

[Spruce]

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting into some WFP work and need some advice from you experts.

For background I mostly do end of tenancy cleaning, carpets etc so this won't be a big part of my work at all but I often get asked by existing clients if we can do exterior windows and it would be nice to do them on some of the bigger houses we do too.

Some of the houses are the big Victorian types in Central London, four and five stories - I don't know what that is in feet!

A trolley will be best for my needs I think and I'll be buying water to start with. I was thinking about the Gardiner backpack but I called them and they said it's only good for about 40-45 feet.

Two trolleys that look ideal are the Pure Freedom Nano and the Xline  25 litre one. The Xline looks like it might stay looking nice a bit longer with the anodised finish and the battery is a bit bigger I believe.

Thoughts on those two, or are there better options?

For the pole I want something that can cover up to 65 feet ideally, I know that will be heavier than I need when doing lower work but as I said it won't be an all day everyday thing.

The Gardiner SMAX50 does 55 feet and with the triple extension another 14. Total weight 4.95kg and about £995+VAT.

The Xline Pro Plus 60 does 65 feet working height and is £1,135+VAT. Their site says it weighs 1.65kg - must be a typo??

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions and p1ss taking greatly appreciated!

Anodized is usually associated with Aluminium poles. Not recommended. Carbon fibre only at that height. My pole is 40' long, and as an experienced wfper I'm nervous about using that at full height. Personally, I wouldn't go higher than that.

You don't say where in London these big properties are, but if some are on the street, then you can't just rock up and start cleaning windows 5 stories high. If you are in a place where there is pedestrian traffic, then many other council restrictions need to be adhered to.

"It would be nice to ..................." Sometimes it's better to stick with what you do best. It's called your core service or business. Occasionally using a pole and equipment of this initial cost is probably never going to pay for itself.

Back in the day, my SLX40 cost the price of a single return ticket to Australia plus £200 spending money. I know because my wife's dream was to visit Australia and I bought a pole. (It was my money.) I also wanted to be able to clean 3 to 4 story places in our town. I ended up never taking that work on, and the guy who does has a 57' pole to reach high windows overlooking the beach. Even with that length of pole there are some dormer windows in the roofline he is unable to reach.

13 years later, I only use this pole a couple of times a month, so I have never justified spending that money tbh.

[Peter DDD]

This isn’t the sort of job for someone without a lot of WFP’ling experience…..It’s kind of like jumping into a formula 1 car without having any driving experience. Running before you can walk.

I'm not planning on going out and cleaning at 60 foot on day one but would like to have the option of the right pole to be able to do so eventually.

Do you often have jobs at that sort of height or are they few and far between?
If so which pole would you recommend?

We do a lot of commercial work at 40-70 feet high it’s specialist work and you do need experience at much lower stuff first . We use the Gardiner ultimate pole with the extension kit to take it up to 73 feet , but this will cost you over 2:5 k so you need a lot of work to justify that expense. You wouldn’t want to be doing ground floor work with it either although couple of windows here and there you could but it’s heavy bulky and collapsed length is long .

Thanks for the info mate. I may need to rethink...

[Peter DDD]

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting into some WFP work and need some advice from you experts.

For background I mostly do end of tenancy cleaning, carpets etc so this won't be a big part of my work at all but I often get asked by existing clients if we can do exterior windows and it would be nice to do them on some of the bigger houses we do too.

Some of the houses are the big Victorian types in Central London, four and five stories - I don't know what that is in feet!

A trolley will be best for my needs I think and I'll be buying water to start with. I was thinking about the Gardiner backpack but I called them and they said it's only good for about 40-45 feet.

Two trolleys that look ideal are the Pure Freedom Nano and the Xline  25 litre one. The Xline looks like it might stay looking nice a bit longer with the anodised finish and the battery is a bit bigger I believe.

Thoughts on those two, or are there better options?

For the pole I want something that can cover up to 65 feet ideally, I know that will be heavier than I need when doing lower work but as I said it won't be an all day everyday thing.

The Gardiner SMAX50 does 55 feet and with the triple extension another 14. Total weight 4.95kg and about £995+VAT.

The Xline Pro Plus 60 does 65 feet working height and is £1,135+VAT. Their site says it weighs 1.65kg - must be a typo??

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions and p1ss taking greatly appreciated!

Anodized is usually associated with Aluminium poles. Not recommended. Carbon fibre only at that height. My pole is 40' long, and as an experienced wfper I'm nervous about using that at full height. Personally, I wouldn't go higher than that.

You don't say where in London these big properties are, but if some are on the street, then you can't just rock up and start cleaning windows 5 stories high. If you are in a place where there is pedestrian traffic, then many other council restrictions need to be adhered to.

"It would be nice to ..................." Sometimes it's better to stick with what you do best. It's called your core service or business. Occasionally using a pole and equipment of this initial cost is probably never going to pay for itself.

Back in the day, my SLX40 cost the price of a single return ticket to Australia plus £200 spending money. I know because my wife's dream was to visit Australia and I bought a pole. (It was my money.) I also wanted to be able to clean 3 to 4 story places in our town. I ended up never taking that work on, and the guy who does has a 57' pole to reach high windows overlooking the beach. Even with that length of pole there are some dormer windows in the roofline he is unable to reach.

13 years later, I only use this pole a couple of times a month, so I have never justified spending that money tbh.

Thanks for the advice. By anodised finish I was referring to the Xline trolley itself.

Noted re access and pedestrians etc, cheers

[richard connett]

Are these houses really 65ft high?!! I clean blocks of flats with a 44ft pole . If it really is that high it’s not something you can have a go at without some experience

[Peter DDD]

Are these houses really 65ft high?!! I clean blocks of flats with a 44ft pole . If it really is that high it’s not something you can have a go at without some experience

To be honest mate I don’t know the exact heights. It’s just know that sone of the Victorian houses have higher internal ceilings and they are 4, sometimes 5 stories high.

Just wanted to go overboard on the pole length to cover the odd really high one if it came up. Thinking I can always use the pole not fully extended. I know the extra weight will be an issue but it’ll only be occasional.
I’ve got a laser distance measurer, next time I’m in one of these houses I’ll check the actual height.
Thanks

[robbo333]

Pure Freedom trolleys are very good (I used one for a few years) and you'll need a water tank; maybe 4 or 500 litres.
If you're cleaning windows at that height you will need at least 2 separate poles and your work will need to be extremely well priced.
If it were me, working in central London, and at that height, I would sub the work out and take a percentage.
If you're not particularly busy and think that window cleaning could fill perhaps 30% of your annual turnover, then give it a go.
At that height you really are taking on a challenge and I would think twice about doing it.
I recently cleaned the insides of a commercial building up to 6 floors (the outsides had just been cleaned by a separate contractor). By the time I got to the 6th floor the outside of the windows looked absolutely terrible.
You need to know what you're doing.

[windowswashed]

Are these houses really 65ft high?!! I clean blocks of flats with a 44ft pole . If it really is that high it’s not something you can have a go at without some experience

To be honest mate I don’t know the exact heights. It’s just know that sone of the Victorian houses have higher internal ceilings and they are 4, sometimes 5 stories high.

Just wanted to go overboard on the pole length to cover the odd really high one if it came up. Thinking I can always use the pole not fully extended. I know the extra weight will be an issue but it’ll only be occasional.
I’ve got a laser distance measurer, next time I’m in one of these houses I’ll check the actual height.
Thanks

As a rough guide:

New houses allow 8ft for each level  2storey (16ft)  and old houses like Victorian allow 10ft per level. i.e. 3storey (30ft)

[Stoots]

Xline do a  45litre trolley,  facelift do a trolley that's 60l and I'm sure you could get or make a bigger one if it was required.

If its a standard 25l one you want then I would look no further than the nano.

[Stoots]

Hi all,

I'm looking into getting into some WFP work and need some advice from you experts.

For background I mostly do end of tenancy cleaning, carpets etc so this won't be a big part of my work at all but I often get asked by existing clients if we can do exterior windows and it would be nice to do them on some of the bigger houses we do too.

Some of the houses are the big Victorian types in Central London, four and five stories - I don't know what that is in feet!

A trolley will be best for my needs I think and I'll be buying water to start with. I was thinking about the Gardiner backpack but I called them and they said it's only good for about 40-45 feet.

Two trolleys that look ideal are the Pure Freedom Nano and the Xline  25 litre one. The Xline looks like it might stay looking nice a bit longer with the anodised finish and the battery is a bit bigger I believe.

Thoughts on those two, or are there better options?

For the pole I want something that can cover up to 65 feet ideally, I know that will be heavier than I need when doing lower work but as I said it won't be an all day everyday thing.

The Gardiner SMAX50 does 55 feet and with the triple extension another 14. Total weight 4.95kg and about £995+VAT.

The Xline Pro Plus 60 does 65 feet working height and is £1,135+VAT. Their site says it weighs 1.65kg - must be a typo??

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions and p1ss taking greatly appreciated!

Anodized is usually associated with Aluminium poles. Not recommended. Carbon fibre only at that height. My pole is 40' long, and as an experienced wfper I'm nervous about using that at full height. Personally, I wouldn't go higher than that.

You don't say where in London these big properties are, but if some are on the street, then you can't just rock up and start cleaning windows 5 stories high. If you are in a place where there is pedestrian traffic, then many other council restrictions need to be adhered to.

"It would be nice to ..................." Sometimes it's better to stick with what you do best. It's called your core service or business. Occasionally using a pole and equipment of this initial cost is probably never going to pay for itself.

Back in the day, my SLX40 cost the price of a single return ticket to Australia plus £200 spending money. I know because my wife's dream was to visit Australia and I bought a pole. (It was my money.) I also wanted to be able to clean 3 to 4 story places in our town. I ended up never taking that work on, and the guy who does has a 57' pole to reach high windows overlooking the beach. Even with that length of pole there are some dormer windows in the roofline he is unable to reach.

13 years later, I only use this pole a couple of times a month, so I have never justified spending that money tbh.

I don't know Spruce, 13 years out of a pole sounds money well spent to me