Cleaning Sills

Greetings and Happy Independence day fellow window cleaners. I’ve got a quick question. Lately, several new residential accounts have asked if I clean the sills, meaning opening the window and wiping down the sill. I am reluctant to do this (and never had in the past) as it’s going to add another hour and another step to the job (I would most certainly need a different bucket of water). What are your thoughts on this? Do you routinely open the windows and wipe down the dirty sills? Seems to me that no doubt, there would be some dirt and such that would find its way to the carpet, and I never have used a towel under the window to catch drips (I don’t drip)

Jeff

We always clean the sills once you get yourself in a routine its not to bad.maybe give two pricing options

I use a sill brush and a damp cloth most of the time. No extra bucket. If the clients wants spotless track or sills, than I charge a little more to cover it. My price include windows, screens and tracks. Additional costs for anything that is extra dirty or requires more time and effort than usual.

Let me ask you to think about some things. If you have a prospective customer that just wants the glass cleaned on the outside and dosen’t want you to touch the frames or anything and it meets you minimum for the job and they like your price. You get the job and that’s ok with you, right? What if you have a prospective customer that wants you to clean the glass outside and in and wipe down the frames and sill and clean the tracks. It meets your minimum for the job and you price it to make what you want to make an hour and they like your price. You get the job and that’s ok with you, plus they tell their friends and people they know. You get more jobs and it will pay a bit better.
Pick up a window and see the crap that is under it and you will understand why they want it done.
Hit it with a sea sponge then a dry rag, it ain’t that much work and it will set you apart from the rest.
Ask Painlessperfection.
Dale

We clean the entire window, glass, tracks, frames and sills. People working inside use the following set up to keep glass cleaning water separate from dirty water



If you don’t clean the sills you are not doing a complete job.

Every estimate I give is for 100%. I have yet to nickel & dime people with diff levels of service. They call me for an estimate to have their windows cleaned, so I clean everything directly related to that window, door, or skylight.

Exactly what buddyo said. I have never even considered leaving the sills unclean, and so price accordingly.
Think of this: If many or most expect the sills to be cleaned and you don’t automatically do that as a standard service, what will your reputation be among those who may give out your name? “He doesn’t do the sills unless you ask him” or “he doesn’t do a thorough job”. I wouldn’t want to risk that rap.

Its like a gardener that mows the lawn but doesn’t edge it.

Must be a lot of exterior sills out there… not so many out here. Already clean interior sills, obviously.

Gotta do those sills. A basic wipedown of sills and screens is complimentary with service. Deep cleanings are available at $2/50 per item.

We don’t clean unexposed “tracks” on 90% of our jobs. We make it very clear verbally during an over the phone estimate and confirm via e-mail, in writing.
On average we charge $100-200 for detailed track cleaning, so it is a nice upsell.
There are way to many complaints that have come in when we just offered it along with service(every bodies definition of clean is different, sort of thing). Now we just charge the heck out of it and make sure the crews are aware they’re going to have to be detailed on the tracks.