[macmac]

You are too slow at the minute but you will get quicker with practice & experience.
However, one thing i will say is to take the clean times some people on here quote with a pinch of salt. people naturaly quote there best ever time, in ideal circumstances or what they think it should take. e.g. one quote above - 9am to 2pm = 25 houses which equates to 12 mins per house. this IMO is unrealistic & does not give a true reflection of real life occurences i.e. plant pots, garden furniture, dog turds, setting up-taking down, knocking for payment, a quick aknowlagement to the custy, moving to next job etc etc.
You will get to know soon enough what is a realistic target & what isn't through your own experience, just don't go out tomorrow thinking that you should be doing a house every 12 minutes

tony

[davids3511]

My target is to be able to get 12 done in a 6 hour day. If I can do that I will be happy (for a while).

[mike richardson]

you should b doing 1 house in 1/2 hr at the very slowest, even on 1st cleans

turn your trolley into a van mount best thing i ever did  saves loads of time

by the time i change barrels i cuc have had 1/2 a house cleaned

you wont regret going van mount

[Jon-scwindows]

i agree, i need to mount my hose in the vehicle- get rid of this trolley idea-
im sure it took me atleast 30mins per job driving to next customer, opening up- getting the trolley out, sorting the house out- changing barrels etc...
i need to get one of those 100m wall mounted metal hose reels, and use my vehicle as the trolley.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

It does get quicker. I just did some work today for the third time wfp and finished it about 1 & 3/4 hrs earlier than the first time. So I pulled some work forward form tomorrow before the rain comes. This with a freedom trolley and changing water barrels. Some of this is down to not having to do a heavy clean on the frames anymore, just maintainace cleans and the rest is working out the best routine.

My water consumption has dropped considerably too. Doing tops only wfp and tradding the bottoms, I only used 100ltrs compared to 175ltrs on the first go round.

My round is very compact which helps of course. All of my work is within 1 square mile and on one estate.

[Paul Coleman]

David, your not far from me....your welcome to come out with me for a day...i do 20 - 25 a day, drop my lad of at school and am back to pick him up, actually i usually fininsh about 2ish!!!...let me know mate

Would love to, but maybe not a full day, I am far enough behind as it is. Where are you and when would be good for you?

Thanks


David

I'm sure you won't regret it.  I was very slow with WFP at first.  When I was shown how quickly it can be done I was astonished.  Mind you, those first cleans do take a lot longer I found.  I normally charge 50% more for them but go around twice.  The trouble is, you can't really do this with an existing customer whose house you previously cleaned the trad way.  I found it also helps if you use a van mounted system rather than a trolley or backpack.  I know some people swear by them but I found that they slowed me down.

[d s windowcleaning]

looking at the link of the 3 bed semi i do a lot like them . i usually do 4 a hour . like you 1st cleans were taking a long time but after a few cleans things started to go faster . wfp was the best move i made but at 1st i thought it was a bad move . stick with it mate and you will speed up .

[john tomkins]

You'll definately get quicker but as quick as some of the posts on here....who knows?
I've upped my speed but still nowhere as fast as 4 x  3 bed houses in an hour, I did go at that speed on my own house and to be honest it was poor, slowing down made it a good job so I follow that with my customers.
I'm not naive enough to start I do a perfect job everytime but I haven't had any problems as such.
Do any of you super quick speedy WFPers  get called back or lose any customers?

[Helen]

davids3511, that house on the link....what are you charging for that one or similar properties? perhaps you are underpriced and that is why it all seems fruitless at the moment

[windowwashers]

I know how you are feeling at the mo, I am doing it to, Some days I am quicker (rarely) would I change it no way, in time I know I will be quicker, I am putting it down to starting again, had the same with trad where to put ladder etc etc, this is the same with wfp where to start what angle etc etc. and remember everyhouse you do for upto 3 times is going to be like a first clean, I myself do the first 3 cleans as some say on the first time, I clean everything little extra time now will save alot next time. I can see that light at the end of the tunnel and I am only half way through my rounds at the mo, cant wait to get back to the start and see, (I need a time machine).

keep plugging away, all will be good if you want it bad enough  .

[david wood]

dave you have been out a number of times with me now .your doing everything right and getting good results but you are rinsing to much and that means spending to long and to much water on each window .but your not getting any complaints and i think you are getting a bit faster so dont worry

[davids3511]

davids3511, that house on the link....what are you charging for that one or similar properties? perhaps you are underpriced and that is why it all seems fruitless at the moment

Hi Helen

I would charge £12.00 for that house. Any more and I simply don't get the business.

[davids3511]

dave you have been out a number of times with me now .your doing everything right and getting good results but you are rinsing to much and that means spending to long and to much water on each window .but your not getting any complaints and i think you are getting a bit faster so dont worry

Cheers Dave, just need to grit the teeth I suppose.

[Paul Coleman]

It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really.  It's like with any new job.  At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it.  After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit.  A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day.  If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes.  I'm not referring to first cleans though.  I do still take a fair bit longer over those.  I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.

[john tomkins]

It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really.  It's like with any new job.  At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it.  After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit.  A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day.  If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes.  I'm not referring to first cleans though.  I do still take a fair bit longer over those.  I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.

Gotta be at least 8 flat window in that pic, 2 fair sized bays, 1 patio doors, 1 porch and you say 10 mins with a bit of effort, I really need to speed up reckon on 30 mins here.
Is that frames, sills, collecting etc? ie pulling up to driving away?

[dai]

It's the rinsing that takes the time. With a higher flow rate and working quicker you will get through a lot more work.

[Jon-scwindows]

Hi guys,
             second day at wfp today- well half day i only started at 1pm!
i think i am slowly speeding up. Best thing i done was to get rid of my trolley, i mounted the pump varistream and battery in a plastic box, with a flick toggle switch on it, and have 50 meters microbore on  ahose reel fixed in the back, bolted down. Much quicker just pulling the hose out and reeling it in.

 Still slow but getting better i think, i usually squeegee off the downstairs windows (unless leaded) if they in, if not i leave it all wet. The poles working great.
i can only carry 150 litres of water atm max- in 25 litre containers.
i used up almost 25 litres on one large house- for my water to last i need to use 10 litres per house-

Im aiming to get allot more done tommorow though. starting at 6:30 -7am hopefully about 15 a day. Nice seeing the money flowing in.
I really need to save on the water i guess, i started using a microbore flow controller, but it started leaking after 30mins! so i just used the quick connect fittings.

many of my customers have lead all over the windows in diamond shapes, so wfp is much easier.

When cleaning yesterday, wfp - a lady walking her dog asked me how much to do her place one off- so today i was cleaning her windows, and her husband said he wants it done every month, then another guy from across the road came upto me to ask me to do theirs on a monthly basis, a new customer from a new customer. Excellent-
i can see myself speeding up, and gaining many more customers.

[Wayne Thomas]

It's the rinsing that takes the time. With a higher flow rate and working quicker you will get through a lot more work.

I use streamline lite 5mm internal hose (really soft,light and very flexible) up inside my waterfed poles with 8mm minibore fittings, a 8mm 'Y' piece and 2mm jets and turn my waterflow up to about 12 o'clock on the varistream. The waterflow is really fast and saves a lot of time waiting for a decent amount of water to come through the brush head onto the glass thus very quick scrubbing & rinsing times

[L.J.Thorpe]

david read my post "victim of success" i can almost guarantee you will find yourself in the same position in a few months. i felt exactly the same when i switched to wfp worried about losing customers,problems with diy system,no immediate increase in speed,massive use of water compared to trad really did think about flogging all the gear on ebay and going back to bucket now iam onto clean six on my regular round and have picked up several new customers without trying and am now going to have to drum up more trade or take fridays off every week.In total i lost two customers because of the switch but have picked up 14 new ones with no effort so stick with it man really one day it will all start to click and then you will start to fly round

[Paul Coleman]

It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really.  It's like with any new job.  At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it.  After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit.  A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day.  If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes.  I'm not referring to first cleans though.  I do still take a fair bit longer over those.  I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.

Gotta be at least 8 flat window in that pic, 2 fair sized bays, 1 patio doors, 1 porch and you say 10 mins with a bit of effort, I really need to speed up reckon on 30 mins here.
Is that frames, sills, collecting etc? ie pulling up to driving away?

I was referring to a maintenance clean.  I don't do all frames on a maintenance clean except for now and then as required.  I do brush the sills off though.  Of course it would need to be a customer who was either out or one who has the money or cheque already to hand.  But I could unload, clean, and load up in 10 minutes if everything was ideal - and the job would be OK too.  However, I will admit that I wouldn't fancy sustaining that pace all day long.

I reckon 20 minutes would be a bit of a plod but I'm happy working that way at times.