What is the industry standard pricing for construction Window Cleaning (in Virginia)?
Triple your regular price at minimum, or don’t do it cause they aren’t fun
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You’re cleaning stucco, paint, silicone, drywall dust, painters tape, window sticker residue, off the glass frame and tracks. You can only hope they had the foresight to not install the screens during the messy construction process. Perhaps that explains why 3 times regular price is standard - if your regular price is set right.
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My rule for construction cleans is that after you do 2 or 3 construction cleans, you’ll learn
A) you priced it too low and it took way longer than you thought
B) you priced it too low and it took way longer than you thought
C) you priced it too low and it took way longer than you thought
By the 4th clean or so you’ll learn that you’re getting closer to pricing it right and it took a littler longer than you thought.
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Construction clean up is a completely different animal. WARNING!!
The last 10 years, construction work in general could careless about drywall dust, mud, paint, lacquer, silicone all over glass, concrete splatter. You name it. Lots of heat treated glass (tempered) and low- e out there. Must have Construction manager or Super, manager, sign a waiver. You can find many waivers online. Waiver against scratched or damaged glass… jIt’s a must.
I know it sucks, and they will be hesitant to sign it, but it will save your life. If they won’t, walk away. You have no idea how scratched up the glass is until you do an initial clean. They must know you take every precaution possible not to scratch the glass. Let them know what methods you use. Otherwise a simple $500 job can wind up costing you thousands. At very best a headache, and a big ding on your insurance premiums. I avoid Construction clean up, but sometimes it’s neccessary. If it’s a regular client I will have for a maintenance schedule I will do it for normal price. If it’s a one, and done I charge 3.5 times what it would cost to do it with normal dirt. I do a quick intial clean, then I work on all the spots stickers, glue, paint, clean frames. I try to stick with one operation at a time. Clean glass and frames, do spots, clean, and then a final with clean soap water. This method seems better than just trying to stay in one area and doing it all. Keep your operation the same. Less changing of tools.
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Long story short, it isn’t worth the hassle and risk. Been there, done that.
Try doing all the mirrored support columns in a new Kohls, covered in silicone. THAT will give you nightmares.
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We got some great guys replying to this one. Good advice! My advice would be to do the worst window complete. Time it. Then do the math. You know what you need per hour. But price by the job or the window. Never by the hour.
Now if you need some advice on technique, or products take a look at my latest web site and blog.
I have the T-shirt. Make people pay for the pain. 3.5 to 4 times a normal cleaning. Construction jobs have really let things go from decades ago. It’s like they put stuff on the glass on purpose anymore. No pride, or quality anymore. We are the last ones to touch the final product and get all the blame. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
