[giftedk]

hi all been window cleaning for five years now, and am now starting to get the hump with it. peoples attitudes and collecting the money is really starting to get me down, so i decided to do a tiling course and see where that gets me. Reading other peoples posts they make window cleaning  sound like the best job in the world, recall seeing things like £600 a day. well i pushed to earn that in a week.
Just wondering wether to chuck it all in and try my hand at tiling ?

[freshwater]

Roof or wall.

You window cleaners dont know when your well off.

A course is OK, but its verry different in the real world. For example, what is your maximimum financial risk as window cleaner your last clean, £15, £20, £30. As a tiler a job may be worth £1000s remember its not just the labour its also all the materials (even if you did not provide them) do a crap job and it all comes down on you.

The grass always looks greener, if you are going to give a try keep the day job and just put your toe in the water to see what its like.

steve@freshwatersystems.co.uk

[DaveWilkinson]

I wouldnt be too quick, take peoples claims of earnings with a pinch of salt unless you have seen the proof ie know someone personally.

You can make good money tiling but 600 a day you have to be a pretty quick tiler, like any trade it would take a long time to develope that kind of speed and that would be a top notch contract

Having said all that I would say if you need a change then try it, but if I was you I would find someone to do your round in the mean time, dont go burning bridges until you know you wont want to get back over the river.

[giftedk]

no sorry that was £600 a day window cleaning !.

[Extremeclean]

This will put the cat amoung the pidgeons but £600 a week isnt bad at all for what after all is an pretty unskilled occupation. Yes it takes a while to get up to speed and there are tricks of the trade to learn but an apprenticeship lasting a few years or years at college are not require to be a window cleaner.

More can be made as time goes on and the more businesslike and ambitious will achieve higher earnings but for most when you take into account lost days etc to earn £600 week in week out which is after all over £30K a year cant be sniffed at so make sure you you know what you are doing before going to where you think the grass may be greener.

[Pat Purcell]

why not push up your prices by 20%, expect to lose about 20% of your customers, take the spare time youve created do the tiling course and start selling it to your existing customers but explain to them that you will be charging the going rate , take your time do a good job etc and buy yourself a good tile saw they are expensive but they take the work out of it for a beginner

[niceandclean]

A friend of mine is a tiler, he charges between 18-22 per square metre plus materials. You have to be going some to earn good money. Run a van, buy all the tools ect. He does some work for Bloor Homes (New Build), and he gets around 12 per square metre.

[ronaldo]

no sorry that was £600 a day window cleaning !.

£600.00 a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! £600.00 a week would be nice 

[david68]

If your near, I would buy your round before you wake up......LOL

Dave

[macc]

There may be a few that earn £600 a day, but not many. So dont think you will because i know i wont.

£600 a week is good money, try & find a job that will pay that with the hours you work with the bennifits of days off when you want, working the hours you want, starting & finishing when you want.

When you look at the hole picture wc is great. Work can be made to fit into our life instead of living arround work.

Macc

[Archy136]

Didnt want to mention this again as it gets peoples backs up but wanted to clarify that unfortunately I DONT EARN 600 ADAY. I just have 1 freak day that I can do it(ON MY OWN). I suppose its just my own little competition.

On average I EARN ALOT ALOT LESS THAN THAT.

What you should do is try tiling but keep you window round ticking over maybe with the help of someone. Dont burn your bridges. See how well you can do at tiling. But remember the building trade has had its up and downs in the past. Its just that at the moment its on a high.

Archy

By the way are you WFP or Trad? Its makes a massive difference. I dont ever remember making 600 AWEEK doing trad in 12 years.

[Easyclean Windows]

Gifted you can earn alot of money in window cleaning simple as depends on how you applicate your self and your business if you would like me to show you some invoices for jobs i have done £1,500,£300,£400 per day let me know and i will email you invoice proof to show you it is possible.

Sometimes it lady luck when you get the big jobs but most is hard graft.

Also the £600 per day lads probably have 2 or 3 vans because you couldn't do that on you own but £200-£300 per day 5 days a week is possible week in week out on your own.

i have myself been doing a clean for a well known building company £300-400 every Friday for 4 hours work....ill show you if you wish to see it can be done

[Moderator David@stives]

Here we go again  most window cleaners earn gross before deductions for equipment ,tax etc £400-£500 a week approx .

there are a few exeptions to this , but what i stated above is quite the norm.

Dave

[Archy136]

Id agree with that for trad wc but not for Wfp. I think everyone would agree that that Wfpolers can earn more than £100-£125 per day!

Archy

[Moderator David@stives]

Archy

They can all things being equal.

If you have enough customers , fair enough, not every window cleaner has a full work load, what about bad weather , holidays, illness, laziness etc.

We are not robots and i bet theres not many here who presented there end of year accounts stating more than £25'000 gross.

I know a fair few would have but i am guessing they are the minority.

Dave

[DaveBrown]

Keep it below 15'000 and you only have to fill in a few boxes on the tax return, send the missus out to work and make your self a cup of tea. Happy days!

[matt]

Im from a building background (im a carpenter)

Tilers can earn good money, i know a few who ive crossed paths with, now they are earning good money

then again, i would expect they are not earning MUCH more than me per day, and dont forget when you have your WC round, its setup and you dont need to go out in the evening to price up work etc etc etc

the people who say they earn 600, 500, 400, 300 a day, i dont know how they do it, as i can not even get close and thats working a good long hours day, take it with a LARGE pinch of salt


when my daughter starts school next year, im going to get back into carpentery, as i have my round thats now 3 days a week, i could set aside 2 days a week for carpentry (well group then all together and have 2 weeks carpentry at the end of my 6 week turn around), as i really miss the sence of achiving something, i would go as far as job satifaction, afterall a clean window is a clean window, a nicely fitted kitchen is something to stand back and admire