I have a $1mm residential two storey lake home with 120 total panes of glass they want cleaned, and billed to the window manufacturer. (Anyone have experience with that??) I usually use magic erasers for small silicone smears, however this silicone is very stubborn and even the magic erasers require very hard scrubbing to remove it, which gets hard on the wrist after 5 panes of glass not to mention all 120. Anyone have any suggestions as far as solvents go, or other ways to remove it? These windows are absoIutely trashed, and lots of extremely difficult, high windows, hence the $2000 price tag. I have some bronze and steel wool on order, not sure if that is a better alternative or not…
Hi everyone,
Do not do this! You will end up working for free, unless you have a lot of time on your hand and you need experience in ccu work.
9 Likes
Yeah, if it was me, I’d walk. There’s a lot of other things that I’d rather do. Like go to the dentist or get kicked in the face with a golf shoe.
10 Likes
Care to elaborate on this? Just so I can explain to the customer why I cannot do this. I was thinking of the window company (All weather windows) signing documentation saying a $500 deposit is needed before work is started, and the balance to be paid in full within 30 days after the work is complete. However I have read a couple horror stories on here where the builder wasn’t paying up…
Your agreement must be made directly with the person being billed.
4 Likes
Trust me when I say, “They are not going to pay you $2,000 to do CCU on 120 panes”. Don’t start any work untill you have a contract agreement with the manufacturer. If you don’t you will be slamming your face into a brick wall untill you can’t remember screwing up so bad. Trust me I’ve done it, they say " bill it to so and so" and I never got anything on paper with them so once I billed them, they just laughed.
2 Likes
Ok thanks for the advice! I will be emailing the quote to the window company with my terms, I have a feeling they are gonna say no, in which case I won’t care that much because even though 2 grand in a day would be nice, it is going to be an absolute nightmare to do lol.
2 Likes
I would pass on this job. Find an easy house(that is not a CCU) with maybe 10 - 15 windows.
I promise you will thank me later.
There has been plenty of jobs that I have looked at and told the homeowner… “I am sorry. I don’t have the time to take on a job this size.”
Focus on the easy jobs and smile all the way to the bank!
5 Likes
First thing: Decline the job.
Second thing: (should be first) Do you know that the manufacturer will pay for being billed to do a Construction Clean Up? Does 120 total panes mean inside and outside for $16.67 per window?)
I will be contacting the manufacturer first to make sure everything is agreed upon before anything happens. They will probably say no, and think joe blow with a bucket will get it good enough for $300. And as far as pricing goes, we are charging 10 exterior, and 22 interior due to the fact the interior window frames are full of yellow expandable foam, hard-to-remove stickers on the PVC, and stickers on the screen frames that she wants removed. The installers absolutely destroyed these. Normally we charge 4.5 outside and 4 inside, but this is truly something else. Im assuming it will take me and my partner 10 hours, so basically $100 bucks an hour which is always our minimum goal.
Unbelievable that they trashed the windows that bad. Too bad. Even at $2,000 I would be very reluctant to take that job.
2 Likes
So the home owener wants you to send the bill to the window manufacturer? Or to the window installation company or to the builder ? Either way you need to talk to the person who’s going to be writhing the check . Sounds like a nightmare already
4 Likes
Yep you got it. I am debating on asking them for 25-50% up front, and walking if they don`t, because I have a large enough portfolio of work and a reputation that can back up my side of the deal.
1 Like
Yellow foam too? Sheesh. Sounds like she needs all new windows
4 Likes
Yes the homeowner called me for this one. The window company is well aware of her dissapointment in the condition of the windows, but probably not aware of what it will cost to fix it properly!!
Just like @anon46335951 stated your agreement must be made with the company who is being billed.
The homeowner has probably tried to negotiate with the company who installed the windows to no avail so the customer is now trying to put someone in the middle.
Don’t be the monkey in the middle…
I would pass on this project.
5 Likes
Be careful man. We are in the scratch removal business, and are on the second phase of scratch removal work for a house a window cleaner made about $1000 doing CCU on. The bill so far is $72,723.44 in scratch removal services. And no, insurance is not covering the WCer costs. The GC is suing him.
7 Likes
Now that is some scary stuff. Surprised the WCer didn’t realize he was scratching everything up while he was doing the first pane and stopped right there!
2 Likes
This is the whole reason why I try to stress about what glass you can and can’t scratch and what protection a waiver may not help if you breach the manufacturers care instructions.
I found this while I was having a heated discussion on FB last week, I never posted there but I will post it here this in an exerts from technical service bulletin:
“The entire industry of glass manufacturers, fabricators, distributors, and installers neither condones nor recommends widespread scraping of glass surfaces with metal blades or knifes. Such scraping will often permanently damage or scratch the glass surfaces.”
I have noticed a new company around here https://goopguys.com/
Thing is they don’t sell their products unless you join their franchise for 15-50k, Then I noticed I could purchase http://www.shieldnpeel.com.au/ from the local hardware shop, I truly believe this is the way builders need to go with the limited cleaning methods we are now given.
1 Like
