[birdymiller]

I have been cleaning windows traditionally for 12 years. Due to having a bit of spare time on my hands since christmas due to the rain, i have been reading alot about cleaning windows using wfp. Just wondered whether it would suit my round. My round is all domestic work, i have done commercial in the past but prefer being able to turn up when i want and not having to commit myself to a specific appointment.

I am based in sheffield and in my area there arnt any wfp window cleaners that i know of that use it on domectic rounds, I have seen them in town on commercial. A typical day for me would start at 9am I park my car and work my way around the round and dont return to the car until ive finished.Would this suit wfp or would it be easier to do trad. This i would say is 3 to 4 days a week, but i also have a couple of days a week where i do a couple of houses then drive to another couple. I have read alot on here some saying they do 80-90% wfp and some saying they wfp 100%.

In my area 3 bed semis are £4, 4 bed det £6, terraced £3 but i do vary these prices depending how awkward/high the houses are. I beleive and i have been told by many customers that i do a good service and am reliable. I can regularly do £200 a day after i have paid my subbie. At the moment i am fit and bomb up and down the ladder all day no problem, whilst my subbie does the downstairs. Falling of the ladder hasnt been an issue yet touch wood as any dodgy windows get footed or left. I do have a problem when my subbie lets me down which can be regular as i do have some rounds that need alot of footing. But after reading about wfp i think it will be easier as i get older and unfitter. Is wfp faster, could i work on my own or is it easier in pairs.

I think that my may main concern is that at the moment my overheads are minimal, i am earning a good living and setting up for work just means pulling the ladders of my roof bars. If i was to invest a few grand in wfp and changing to a new van would i see returns. Is it hassle setting up, how many houses can you clean before you have to move the van. Would a backpack suit me or a trolley.How much are your overheads a week including fuel, does all the stopping and starting knacker your van.

I think i could do with some hands on experince of this system, anyone near me prepared to show me how they work?

[pootwo]

go for it the best move iv ever made beshor to give cutys a letter about wfp , yes you will move your van moor & moor derv  &  a new way of working  dont wate  till your knees are bugerged ext  or till you brake a leg ,I bet you know sum shiners who have

[Paul Coleman]

I have been cleaning windows traditionally for 12 years. Due to having a bit of spare time on my hands since christmas due to the rain, i have been reading alot about cleaning windows using wfp. Just wondered whether it would suit my round. My round is all domestic work, i have done commercial in the past but prefer being able to turn up when i want and not having to commit myself to a specific appointment.

I am based in sheffield and in my area there arnt any wfp window cleaners that i know of that use it on domectic rounds, I have seen them in town on commercial. A typical day for me would start at 9am I park my car and work my way around the round and dont return to the car until ive finished.Would this suit wfp or would it be easier to do trad. This i would say is 3 to 4 days a week, but i also have a couple of days a week where i do a couple of houses then drive to another couple. I have read alot on here some saying they do 80-90% wfp and some saying they wfp 100%.

In my area 3 bed semis are £4, 4 bed det £6, terraced £3 but i do vary these prices depending how awkward/high the houses are. I beleive and i have been told by many customers that i do a good service and am reliable. I can regularly do £200 a day after i have paid my subbie. At the moment i am fit and bomb up and down the ladder all day no problem, whilst my subbie does the downstairs. Falling of the ladder hasnt been an issue yet touch wood as any dodgy windows get footed or left. I do have a problem when my subbie lets me down which can be regular as i do have some rounds that need alot of footing. But after reading about wfp i think it will be easier as i get older and unfitter. Is wfp faster, could i work on my own or is it easier in pairs.

I think that my may main concern is that at the moment my overheads are minimal, i am earning a good living and setting up for work just means pulling the ladders of my roof bars. If i was to invest a few grand in wfp and changing to a new van would i see returns. Is it hassle setting up, how many houses can you clean before you have to move the van. Would a backpack suit me or a trolley.How much are your overheads a week including fuel, does all the stopping and starting knacker your van.

I think i could do with some hands on experince of this system, anyone near me prepared to show me how they work?

I don't live near you but I'm sure someone will oblige you.
My personal experience was as follows:-
I found that not all properties have suitable access for a van mount so used a trolley or a backpack on them.  As time went by, I changed a few things to make it easier for myself.  I bought a smaller bore hose to fit on my reel so I had a 100m reach instead of 50m (though I did sometimes daisy chain two   50m reels together). This enabled me to more easily do jobs where I couldn't park so close.   I targetted properties that were suitable for a van mount and gradually phased out the work where I needed backpack/trolley.  I found that I had to move the vehicle more even on compact work but the extra speed of WFP more than made up for any time taken todo this.  WFP can be hard for a while as even regular jobs are first cleans (due to top frame scrubbing and needing to be thorough first time).  Also, to some degree, you need to re-learn your round in terms of best places to park, which order to do windows in etc.  It can be a pig at first but well worth it in the medium to long term.  This year, my turnover will be at least 80% up on the last year I did trad cleaning (October 04 - Sept 05) - though expenses are higher too.  The plus side of this is loweer tax bill though.  This January is the first year that my largest capital expenses are being taken into account so I actually don't have to pay the taxman anything this month.  In fact, they owe me - but I won't claim it back as I would rather offset it against the money due in July.

[steven ainger]

i presume at those prices you dont do the frames, which you will have to do wfp an so charge more, also if you do go wfp, dont use fairy change to gg3/4, if you are using fairy, for the last clean before change over and also clean all the tops of frames while your up the ladder, it will make life easier

[[GQC] Tim]

My goodness I hope you are joking about those prices. 3 Bed semi I charge £15 to £20. Trad.

[Sir Squeaky]

i presume at those prices you dont do the frames, which you will have to do wfp an so charge more

Yes, but don't do both at once.
That's a sure way to lose customers.
I lost a shed-load due to the change, and I kept my prices.
If I'd asked for money and expected them to accept wet windows I'd have lost most.

My goodness I hope you are joking about those prices. 3 Bed semi I charge £15 to £20.

I hope you are joking about those prices. :
£15 to £20 for a 10-15 minutes semi?
That's ridiculous, I'm amazed you've got any customers left.
£10 is the most anyone I know charges.

[pootwo]

I USED UNGER LIQUID & IT WENT WELL WITH WFP

[birdymiller]

cheers lads. So with a 100m hose how many houses do you normally do before you move?
 There has been plenty of debate about price on here, but as already been posted on forum nationally prices vary. A normal 3 bed semi in my area is worth £150,000 it takes me and the lad about seven mins to clean. We wipe all sills and do all windows. Some of my semis are £8, they dont have a conservatory they are just high and need footing. If i could charge £15 then i would, id be on £150 an hour like you gqc, but i have to charge the going rate in my area.

[[GQC] Tim]

i presume at those prices you dont do the frames, which you will have to do wfp an so charge more

Yes, but don't do both at once.
That's a sure way to lose customers.
I lost a shed-load due to the change, and I kept my prices.
If I'd asked for money and expected them to accept wet windows I'd have lost most.

My goodness I hope you are joking about those prices. 3 Bed semi I charge £15 to £20.

I hope you are joking about those prices. :
£15 to £20 for a 10-15 minutes semi?
That's ridiculous, I'm amazed you've got any customers left.
£10 is the most anyone I know charges.

3 Bedroom semi, can take about 20min on my round, and yea £15 is perfectly justified. People take it, so why not? I'm trying to earn atleast £30 an hour.

Then again, this is Guildford heh. Some people spend £50-60 on a hairdresser.

[steven ainger]

theres a guy on peter fogwells forum,  window-tools forum , hes from sheffield and has just gone wfp and loves it, go on there and ask him about it, he may talk to you unless he dont want the competion

[Sir Squeaky]

3 Bedroom semi, can take about 20min on my round, and yea £15 is perfectly justified. People take it, so why not? I'm trying to earn atleast £30 an hour.

I take £25-30 per hour.
3 or 4 semis at £8 or £9 is £30 per hour.

At your prices I'd be doing more like £60 per hour.

[[GQC] Tim]

That would mean that'd have to be right next to each other. Which my round is not. Some parts are some parts aren't.

Couple of new jobs that I have, 25min 3 bedroom semi, £22. People are happier then they've ever been after I cleaned them, not even a hm..or a blink about the price.

So yea, I can imagine it's not the same everywhere, but you have to pay £500 atleast for a studio flat already, so what you earn you have to spend a lot of it aswell remember.

[simon knight]

I charge £16 for a basic 3 bed semi and £20-£23 for a 4 bed...and I'm considered cheap. I suppose it depends on where you live.

[simon knight]

cheers lads. So with a 100m hose how many houses do you normally do before you move?
 There has been plenty of debate about price on here, but as already been posted on forum nationally prices vary. A normal 3 bed semi in my area is worth £150,000 it takes me and the lad about seven mins to clean. We wipe all sills and do all windows. Some of my semis are £8, they dont have a conservatory they are just high and need footing. If i could charge £15 then i would, id be on £150 an hour like you gqc, but i have to charge the going rate in my area.

Sounds to me you have a nice compact round and earning good money from it (£200 a day is good dough in anybodies language). If you're doing a 3 bedder in 7 minutes I reckon wfp would slow you down. The safety thing doesn't matter to you because you have a lad footing. Your fitness comes from running up and down ladders all day.

Mate if it ain't broken why fix it?

[birdymiller]

Most of my work is fortnightly. A lot of the lads on here talk about monthly and 8 weekly work. Would wfp work fortnightly?

[Tim Rose]

And depends on how long each takes.

I'd charge £200 for a 3 bed semi if it took all day.

I'd charge £1 if it took one minute.

So obviously the price needs to be somewhere between these two.

Its all down to how much care you take, and what you are doing (frames or not, sills or not etc or not).

[Sir Squeaky]

I charge £16 for a basic 3 bed semi and £20-£23 for a 4 bed...and I'm considered cheap. I suppose it depends on where you live.

I'm moving.

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

Hi Birdy,

First of all; take no notice of the bragging about how much folks charge :
If YOU are happy then that's OK

Now, by the sounds of it you're earning a decent income as you are
But you have ladder issues which rely on another person :

So. if I were you, and I am not at all as fit as you   I would look to going WFP over the next 12 months.  There is no rush.

This is MY suggested plan:

The basic idea is to purify water to NO dissolved solids (minerals).  Take out the pure water.  Pump it up a water fed pole and brush and rince the windows clean
SIMPLE :

1. Have you got a garage/shed/outbuilding at home where you can get a about 10ft x 5ft floor space?  If so you can look to setting up a static tank and filter system in the building.

2. Do you know if you are in a soft water or hard water area?  Good idea to buy a TDS meter
http://www.cleantech.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22_39&products_id=199
Test your tap water.  If it is 075 or below then a simple De-Ionising filter will be fine. If it's over (it most likely will be) then you have to go for a more complicated Reverse Osmosis system

3. I personally prefer a backpack and pole.  You can go anywhere.  No hoses all over.  But to use it efficiently you have to set it up right

Give me a call if you like.

07815106363

David Salkeld

[simon knight]

I charge £16 for a basic 3 bed semi and £20-£23 for a 4 bed...and I'm considered cheap. I suppose it depends on where you live.

I'm moving.

There does seem to be a big difference between London prices and prices outside of it....which is daft really. The only thing that's cheaper (generally) outside of london is property. Everything else is roughly the same price as far as i can make out. I pay £1.05 for petrol...bet you pay the same. I pay £1200 a year Council Tax. A tin of baked beans in Asda is 40p (?)...reckon the Asda in Wales charges 40p as well!....the list is endless!

[birdymiller]

cheers david

Appreciate all that mate. So when you are using the back pack how many houses/windows can you clean before you run out. How do you refill it or do you simply change the tank. Do you have tank in the car or do you carry full replacement tanks.