Just had a contractor cut ties with me because he hired me without getting a price and doesn’t like the invoice. Said my bid came out to $12.50 a pane per side and I owe him an explanation. He is going to pay me and we are done.
I charged $5,200.00 for glass in/out heavy sticker and slight glue removal, the 2 sides of the building you cant see are equal to this. I used there lift and vacuumed all of the window tracks and there was about 15 windows with a railing over half the windows. Thoughts?
How long did it take you? Job of that size, or any job really, I always try to give at least a range, if not final price. (99% of the time its a final )
Pricing obviously depends on the region and the local market, but that doesn’t sound outrageous for construction clean up, especially considering the height as well. Was this the first time working with him on something above 2-story or something? I’d have given him an estimate especially considering the size of the project if that was the case, but if you’d worked with him for a long time then I can understand why you didn’t. I think communicating a ballpark number at least before getting started is a good idea though. Either way, the price itself doesn’t seem out of norm.
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I’ve done 3 jobs for them before. He tried comparing this price to a one stories property I did before and then one that had a fuck load of glass but was a 4 hr waterfed pole job cleaning up landscape dust not construction debris. He said my bid comes out to. $12.50 per pane per side and needs an explanation yet he hired me blind with no price request.
So basically price cones out to 25 per pane that includes in/out sticker and adhesive removal and tracks for 2 3 4 story windows.
CCU is 2-3x the regular cost (at least for me)… let him fire you and move on, don’t even stress it.
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Yup. If we still actually did CCU that contractor would be double pissed at me.
Iam in Denver and Iam pretty sure I’ve done work for that guy , company before. Totally not worth what they want to pay.
The building style and you can use our lift sound familiar. Patel?
$25 per pane does seem a tad steep… I never do any job anymore
without the homeowner/contractor knowing the price…just for this reason of what you are facing.
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I’m pricing CCU wrong!
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We quote and have them sign (electronically) before we even put them on our schedule.
Once did some pressure washing and client freaked. He was comparing our price to a tech who did the work behind his boss’s back and for cash on the spot.
Don’t stress, don’t explain much. Collect and move on
That’s 12 dollars to clean a pane 2 3 and 4 stories in the air with ccu crap on it and 12 dollars to clean a pane inside with crap on it and scrub a nasty track
Haha I don’t live in Denver
Our highest charge per pane was $16.5/ea, but nothing like that work.
Some people don’t scoff at large estimates and others scoff at low estimates. Do what you can to salvage the relationship but understand that you can only do so much. People even complain that their free ice cream isn’t their favorite flavor.
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almost never start a job unless the customer knows what it will cost. looks like a $25 per pane to me given what you had to deal with. yes…CCU is 2 to 4 times a “normal” cleaning. Here is our diclaimer.
Post Construction Window Cleaning Disclaimer
With construction cleaning we frequently have to deal with
• Heavy dust on sills/frames, accumulated debris in sliding door and window tracks that has to be broken up to get it loose and then vacuum up the material…then
• Put water in the tracks and soak up the water and dirt that remains.
• We have to remove from all the glass stickers/labels/ residual glue and at times protective plastic sheeting which can leave some adhesive. The adhesive frequently has to be removed using a “magic eraser” or steel wool.
• There is drywall mud, stucco and/or concrete splash at times on the glass and metal framing all of which must be removed without scratching the glass or metal framing. Concrete and stucco are made with sand and sand moved across glass or metal while cleaning will scratch it. There are special solvents for concrete removal.
• Often times silicone, a big headache, has to be removed using a combination of scraper blade/steel wool/magic eraser/solvents.
• The screens usually require extra work to get them clean.
Construction cleaning can take twice to four times as long as a “normal cleaning” if the windows/doors/tracks/screens have not been considered while construction is under way.
The pricing provided is designed to make sure we can leave the site windows and doors essentially “like new” but given the many unknowns please be aware we will provide an estimate that I believe will entirely cover the cost of this construction cleaning but if we find it impossible to complete the project at the stated base price after the project is underway we will consult with you at that point about how much more we expect to do and the projected added charges for the remaining work.
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A job that size … you should Of giving the price first.
This guy knows that ! Why would he let you do a job without hearing the price first. Especially of this magnitude ?
Is this the way you did the other Two jobs for him ?
In my eyes it’s his fault. You let someone start a job , then complain about a price afterwards.
If you went there without him knowing your doing the job , then it’s your fault, which I doubt happened , because you used his lift.
What’s does he feel is a fair price is for a construction clean off ?
He hired me for 3 jobs previously and tried to guess based upon those what this price would be. I had another guy call me since this post and tell me how they have a house cleaning crew they pay $20 an hour and will be using them. 
he also told me they had a 5 thousand dollar cleaning budget for the whole property. Windows, walls, floors, sinks all the dust, drywall, crap everywhere 5 thousand so paying me only they don’t have the $5,200 from this job. What is funny is they had brought up a job previously I did for cheap I explained to them that was a one story property not four stories and I underbid that job and I honored my quote they had me give on that job and took the loss. I informed the guy that I have worked for them before and never tried to pull a changerorder when I underbid one job and not to question my character. He said if I tried to changeorder on the 1st job for them I underbid he wouldn’t have paid it because it’s not my fault if I underbid a job. However here he is yelling at me because they went over budget because they under bid this job lol. They are going to pay me apparently at a huge loss but will never use me again since they only had 5 grand for every bit of cleaning.
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Learn from the experience and get it all in writing before hand. It doesn’t help that he asked someone to handle a scope that size without asking any kind of pricing information, so the contractor isn’t blamm-free. But many of us have learned lessons the hard way, some more financially impacting than others though.
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Confusing take on how business works. I get every single detailed in writing and signed off before. That’s for everyone’s protection. Without it you leave yourself wide open.
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