[Paul Coleman]

Had a call recently from a cleaning company to quote window cleaning for a car showroom.  Gave the quote.  I kept it down as it's weekly in and out and most of it can be done out of hours so wouldn't overlap with other work (it's only a couple of miles from home and I go near there a lot so no problem returning to finish off if needed). So a decent chance to earn some OK ongoing money.  I have no picture but there are 33 panes around the showroom measuring about 9ft high by about 4ft wide.  Additionally there are two double doors with a rectangular panel above. It's all ground floor work.  Outside to be done by WFP.  Inside to be done by squeegee using a hop up.  I quoted what I thought was very reasonable but not heard anything back so assume I haven't got the job (they wanted an urgent start and were going to let me know by a certain date).  It may be that because it is for a cleaning company rather than directly for the customer, I haven't left a margin in it for them.  Also, cleaning companies are used to paying £6 - £7 per hour for their labour - obviously a non-starter for someone self-employed like me.
I suppose to simplify it you could call it 35 panes @ about 9' x 4' in and out.

Anyway, from the above description anyone want to have a stab at a quote?  I'll leave mine to the end as I don't want to influence it.

I do want to get more commercial work.
I don't want to price myself out of the market and am prepared to compromise a bit on "economy of scale" jobs.
I don't want to compromise to the degree that I am ripping myself off.

Anyone wanna play the numbers game?

[S.A.J]

If i was pricing it per pane i would go for £1.50 outside £1.50 inside

35x3=£105

Which i think is a bit to high for a car show room on a weekly clean.

So i would have to price it on time. I clean a car show room just like you describe and it takes 2 of us between an hour and a hour and a half to clean.

say you clean it in 3 hours @ £20 an hour = £60 for the job

Taking in mind it is a weekly job and is for a cleaning company i would put a quote in for £45-£55

Hope all that makes some sort of sense 

Stuart
SAJ WIndow Cleaners

[trevor perry]

 i agree that £45 to £50 about right but no doubt you will find someone willing to do it for about £25 .

[Paul Coleman]

I was hoping to get a bit more response on this.
Jobs used to take me longer than I anticipated but that's less often the case now I use WFP.  When I quoted the above mentioned job, I also quoted for a small office on the premises too but I didn't want to confuse the issue.
Anyway, for the work I mentioned, the proportion of my overall quote was about £63/£64.  I couldn't be certain but I was reckoning on about 2 1/2 hours to do a decent job on it.  That would work out at a bit under £26 per hour.  I normally aim higher than this so felt I was compromising a bit without dropping too far.  You see I could have saved time by only using a hop up inside say every third time and leaving the higher part of the glass that would normally remain unmarked and I could have skimped on a couple of other bits too which all meant that I could have lowered the price.  However, I do not want to skimp on my standards.  Just wondering if I am being a bit náive and need to live in the real world of job bumpers.  I really don't want to do that though.  I prefer to clean everything I quote for and price accordingly.

[marc]

i would be £60 to £70 and if some one wants to do it for £25 to£30then let them have

[marc]

it

[gary evans]

Shiner

I would say £60.00 in / out or £250 per calendar month that gives them a saving & makes the job look cheaper.

Gary

[gary evans]

Reference doing it as sub-contract we do lot of this its safer & cheaper to sub it, think of all the cars, accident & injury claims etc.

I normally price a job accordingly & we are not expensive, i would qoute a job by taking in consideration there profit margin i.e. £100 i,d charge £80 but it must be good & slot into own work.

hope this helps.

Gary

[Tosh]

I suppose to simplify it you could call it 35 panes @ about 9' x 4' in and out.

For a weekly clean of this size; and it's a good size; that's handy to get too, easy to do, that you can do early and in any weather, I'd quote 50 quid minimum.

But I may try and talk them into having them done less frequently; but at a better price.

I doubt they really need them done every week; unless there's other factors we're unaware of that dirties the windows quickly.

[Clive McDonald]

what's a hop up?

[Russell Macdonald]

Steps

[paul w]

if it was near home i would do for £15ph to allow cleaning com mark up thats what i tell the cleaning companys i work for. £20 for cheques ect

[Paul Coleman]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  It sounds like my quote was there or thereabouts and, if it was high, it wasn't much over.  Paul W.  I was basing quotes on about £15 - £20 per hour until a couple of years back but I felt I was shortchanging myself.  Nothing wrong with it though if that's the going rate for the area and you can live OK on it.  Mind you, I'm uneasy about charging a higher rate for cheque payments because that could give the impression of non declaration - something that I don't do.
My hunch is that if I was quoting directly for the customer I might well have got this job but the fact that I may not have left sufficient for a cleaning company's margin may have been the deciding factor in not getting it.  There probably is room for maneouvre on the frequency though.  Maybe the outside of the showroom weekly, inside two weekly, and the small office (not part of the above) maybe monthly.  Maybe I could even haved shaved a tenner a week off the price without dropping the frequency but I suppose it's about how far am I prepared to go.  I'm not desperate for work but these are the sort of jobs I want to start moving into.
Anyway, I haven't lost it because I never had it.

[Paul Coleman]

I suppose to simplify it you could call it 35 panes @ about 9' x 4' in and out.

For a weekly clean of this size; and it's a good size; that's handy to get too, easy to do, that you can do early and in any weather, I'd quote 50 quid minimum.

But I may try and talk them into having them done less frequently; but at a better price.

I doubt they really need them done every week; unless there's other factors we're unaware of that dirties the windows quickly.

I might have got the rate closer to that but there would have been a certain amount of pulling hoses around cars outside and a bit of desk juggling inside.  Both of those factors would have added a bit of time to the job.  Also, there were a lot of blinds inside to mess about with.  The obstacles may well have been half an hours worth.

[stephen d]

shiner,
dont go beaten yourself up about this and stick to what you are happy quoting.there is nothing worse than going really cheap to get a job then realising its a pig of a job or worse still it takes you longer than you 1st thought and your working for a lot less/hour.what i would do is simply phone up the company you quoted for and ask them,as they might be happy with your quote and are just waiting on the garage to get back to them,good luck.

[Paul Coleman]

shiner,
dont go beaten yourself up about this and stick to what you are happy quoting.there is nothing worse than going really cheap to get a job then realising its a pig of a job or worse still it takes you longer than you 1st thought and your working for a lot less/hour.what i would do is simply phone up the company you quoted for and ask them,as they might be happy with your quote and are just waiting on the garage to get back to them,good luck.

I know what you mean about getting a regular job and it turning into an underpriced liability that you deeply regret.  I've done some like that before now and vowed never to do that again.  I would rather not get a job than have that sinking feeling every time it was due.  Even so, if the cleaning co. come bacjk to me about shaving a bit off the price, there is a little bit of room for maneouvre.  I would suggest only cleaning the inside to head height and doing a full one once a month or maybe reducing the small office bit to monthly instead of weekly.  There is even a little room for maneouvre on my price but only as a small trim rather than a huge chunk.

[gary evans]

Shiner

Further to my other entries about subbing, it does work, i,ve done work for a brum based company for nearly six years, t/o approx 5k per annum.

Recently qouted for a 20k per annum job, so i would keep in with them if you feel you want to work for them it can be advantagous in the long run.

Gary

[Llaaww]

Sounds like a good job to me. I clean trad at the moment I would go in for £50 for the first clean, with closer to £35-40 for repeat cleans