[Kevin R]

The reason I dont wish to charge low prices like £15 per hour or even £50 for two hours work is you will continue to live hand to mouth for ever. At that point you have a self employed JOB not a business.

If one man can clean residential windows at £40 an hour (most can wfp if pricing is sensible) why clean gutters for less?

We have the beer money crowd here to. They dont effect my business at all. Price well and you will get better work, stay cheap and you will get the price shopping skinflints as customers as they think YOUR in it for the beer money.

If your running a bona fide business you have higher running costs. So your charges must cover these. I see many a window cleaning companies come and go because most dont charge enough and the costs catch up with them (like tax) and then they realise their not making as much money as they though. On £15-25 an hour your better off in employment.

[Oakley Windows]

Wherever you are in the country £6.50 an hour is a pittance; I wouldnt fart for that. I wonder if your getting confused between what is a good rate of earning and what is the bare minimum.

I used to think ANYTHING was good (maybe I even thought anything is better than nothing).

IMO it isnt what you can get away with but what the market tolerates. I think the way to find this out is to see how many jobs out of the next 20 you price you actually secure. If you secure all 20 then your pricing structure is too low. If you secure 15 its still too low. Secure maybe 10 and your get binned by the others your somewhere near what you need to be.

Another way of looking at it, regarding your £15.00 an hour rate of earning. Lets say on average after weather causes a certain number of hours cancelled work throughout the week, holidays you take, sickness, bank holidays and just days out, that you will work 30 hours a week for 45 weeks a year? That means you'll earn just over £20,000 a year. BEFORE ANY COSTS and associated financial burdens (tax, nat. ins, public liability insurance, materials, vehicle, fuel, vehicle servicing, MOT, upkeep of vehicle............) is there any point in being self-employed if after everything your income is in the same arena as the national average?

Matt

[Kevin R]

dont know what jobs down your way pay but £6.50 an hour is good here,so £15 an hour is good for a trad cleaner with  low overheads

£6.50 an hour for staff is a good rate - now add on a further 20% for employment costs and then the extra costs of replacing equipment, vans  and all the other associated costs. Then factor in the profit you would like to make, your seriously looking at £30 - £40 per hour per man and thats running a competitive outfit.

Ok now if your a trad cleaner working from your car / old van then £15 an hour seems fine, but this will never allow you to employ or expand unless your employee is earning much the same as you, or you get rid of your work and start again.

Dont get me wrong but at those prices especially trad, one little accident that lays you up,  will be the nail in the coffin of your business / job as you will never recover your costs.

£10 per house is the going minimum WC rate here for most of the "proper cleaners" One man can do 3.5 - 4 of these constantly an hour.

If you earning less than that and you never want to expand - you just want to work for yourself and your not worried about downtime due to accident or illness then good luck to you, but if you want a business that takes care of you eventually then you need to increase your profile and prices.

[ftp]

Some conflicting answers here which is good. Some odd ones too  What's the point in investing in expensive kit and then saying you're not going to charge much? You have to get a return or there is absolutely no point in buying it surely? I've spent probably close to a thousand just to get into the guttering market. If i charge at £6.50 per hour or even £15  i'll never pay for it or even have a descent living. 

[Kevin R]

all you need for guttering is a ladder and a bucket its not rocket science

But mending broken bones is 

[Oakley Windows]

The guys cleaning cars in Sainsburys car-parks will earn more than you Stan and with no need for a ladder and no risk of ending up in a wheel-chair paralysed from the neck down til they die (ever wondered how paraplegics in wheel-chairs manage to go to the loo?, its messy, degrading, invasive and involves someone elses fingers)

[Chris Galloway]

Personally id pay £1000 for a bit of kit to do a job safely than to do it off ladders. My life and livelihood is worth that much at least, and i still charge the same than i did with the trad method. BUT i dont knock anyone on their pricing policies, its what YOU want to charge YOUR customers, and what YOU feel you can get from them.

Its YOUR life, YOUR business, run it how YOU want.

This thread ideally was to find out a ball park figure about how people charge. Lets not get back into the usual CIU forum way of bashing.

Its not rocket science its a case of if you want to work of a ladder with a bucket, thats your choice, good luck to you - i hope you dont fall on a cold icy day, personally id rather use the vac keeping my feet on the floor, and at the end of the day knowing i will see my partner and my friends and family again, through no fault of my own.

[Alex Wingrove]

although it looks good custys will not want to pay much, it also depends on how affluent the area is.

personally i charge £3 per metre for fascia and gutter cleaning, and i charge £3 a meter for gutter clearance. However minimum is £10 for gutter clearance as i would need to inspect, as not all the gutter system may need cleaning. However for really dirty fascias and gutters it would likely to be £5/metre.

But its what your prepared to charge, and what you think you can actually get. Some people may charge more, because they can get the custom doing it.

So what would you charge for an inside gutter clearance and an outside clean off on a 4 bedroom detached house, where the gutters run the length of all 4 sides, each side being approx 10 metres in length?

£115

[seandyer2003]

The reason I dont wish to charge low prices like £15 per hour or even £50 for two hours work is you will continue to live hand to mouth for ever. At that point you have a self employed JOB not a business.

If one man can clean residential windows at £40 an hour (most can wfp if pricing is sensible) why clean gutters for less?

We have the beer money crowd here to. They dont effect my business at all. Price well and you will get better work, stay cheap and you will get the price shopping skinflints as customers as they think YOUR in it for the beer money.

If your running a bona fide business you have higher running costs. So your charges must cover these. I see many a window cleaning companies come and go because most dont charge enough and the costs catch up with them (like tax) and then they realise their not making as much money as they though. On £15-25 an hour your better off in employment.

25 an hour better off employed?? where do you live - buckingham palace, tax isnt 90% you know, anything above 10-15 an hr for yourself is better than minimum wage, i earn a good rate, but i wouldnt tell someone on 15 to go get a job because they arent on £50 an hour for ripping off pensioners who cant clean there own gutters, theres a price for profit, and there is taking the p, just because they HAVE to pay it, doesnt mean you should price ridiculously, thats what you probably moan about when you go to fill your car, or buy food, why practice it yourself?

[elite mike]

off topic i know, but there is a cafe down the road

they have polish workers in there they get paid £2.00 per hour

[seandyer2003]

imagine getting £20 for 10 hours!! craaazy

[ftp]

The point is not wages but turnover. The cafe owner isn't looking to earn £2.00 an hour!
Companies like Kevs can't survive on £30 an hour. his overheads will be huge compared to mondeo man with a ladder and a bucket! When i started out over eighteen months ago i thought prices on here were a rip off. I just couldn't see the bigger picture. If you are running a business paying wages and investing in the latest equipment (thousands of pounds) then prices must change.

[darragh windows]

some of these prices seem a bit steep you can have a 3 bedroom semis guttering soffit and fascia and downspouts all replaced for £380 all in

[seandyer2003]

some of these prices seem a bit steep you can have a 3 bedroom semis guttering soffit and fascia and downspouts all replaced for £380 all in

hehe, why not have it cleaned for nearly the same price

[peter holley]

the observation iv made on this forum is that the ones who are happy with £15 an hour are the same ones that refuse to work in the rain???

and the ones  that charge prices that are a lot higher work in all weather.....thats because some are just working to exist week in week out(struggling)  and some are buisnesses with aspirations to be the best they can in life.

[trike]

just got back.ladder bucket ,pair of gloves,mate holding ladder[4 pack of larger for him]two houses 50quid took 1 and a half hour,job done

[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

we have set fee for gutter prices.

£120.00 for 3 bed house with 3 sides
£140.00 for 4 bed house with 3 sides
£180.00 for detached 4 bed
£210.00 for detached 5 bed

dis a 5 be dhouse this week £265.00

[jaykie]

Im so glad i only listen to certain peoples posts on this forum and i now know whose not to read as if id read some of these when i 1st started i wouldnt of bothered making the plunge in this trade, but im glad i listened to those in the no.

[elite mike]

off topic i know, but there is a cafe down the road

they have polish workers in there they get paid £2.00 per hour

report them

hi stan

they get round this by board & lodgings

[jaykie]

Im so glad i only listen to certain peoples posts on this forum and i now know whose not to read as if id read some of these when i 1st started i wouldnt of bothered making the plunge in this trade, but im glad i listened to those in the no.

what just the greedy ones 

whats to say your not just a cheap one