I’m a window cleaner from the UK. As most of you know we operate window cleaning alot differently from most of you (Americans). We offer biweekly, monthly and six weekly. The average is once per month.
The typical homes we would clean have between 5-12 windows for an average UK home. We’d charge anything from £1- £2($1.30- $2.60) per full window, outside only. For conversation sake we’d clean a house for £10 ($13.03) averaging 10-20mins work.
Now I was thinking of adapting your style of work into my own. Cleaning tracks and indoor windows is a rare thing in the UK for an average window cleaner. We rarely enter people’s homes and can clean outside regardless if your home or not.
But it’s about thinking outside the box and if I’d offer people a service that others don’t. I’d be separated from the rest.
Here’s some questions for you. If you could adapt to the UK methods would you bother with the cleaning styles you use right now? In the UK like I said it’s outdoor only, no screens at all. We cover alot more houses per day, but alot of wasted time in between.
If someone said to you. No more tracks and no more screens, you can clean outside only. What would you say?
Were all window cleaners, we do different methods but the windows get cleaned regardless. I like to see different answers.
The houses and the windows are different in the United States. Its totally different. I know because I’ve watched more than a few U.K. YouTubers washing windows. haha
I’ve done both - 4 years in Ireland sandwiched by 10 years in the States. Unfortunately, I think the cultures with regard to Window Cleaning are too different.
Even in Ireland with pvc windows, I still had to scrub the sides due to the mossy buildup and grime.
I charge 2-2.50$ per pane exterior only here. I also drive further from job to job and these are 2, maybe three times a year max. I would be willing to do it more regularly for less like Ireland, but the folks here don’t see that as a necessary.
It’s kind of an apples and oranges thing. Similar, but totally different.
I have been working on monthly window cleaning for a while and it is a sloooow process I only have 3 houses 2 monthly and 1 every 2 weeks…
I just mention if they want to keep the windows clean they look out the most, I would just clean those every month…I did have 4 houses that way, but one moved…
You can anticipate a lot more time spent scheduling to get the interior access, especially if the occupants want to be there during the servicing. Being able to do exteriors only while the occupants are not home gives you a lot of freedom.
My average home has about 40 windows. I’m ok with an outside only clean. You will never sell enough people in my service area on monthly cleaning. I only have a very few that I could talk into monthly and that is only a few windows, not the whole house.
The lion share of my clients do twice a year,
Folks in the States, don’t see the value in monthly cleaning, nor is there are tradition here of doing it.
i wouldnt go against tradition personally. it will probably take you a year to find out what is the tradition in your region. then pound it hard. this is [probably] why water pole guys find it hard to get a toehold in residential ,theyre fighting tradition. you wont find this mentioned much on the forums but if you look on ebay theres most always a guy selling up his near new waterfed setup cos he couldnt carve out a round
in my own town a very popular resident started on the windows about 2yrs ago[water pole] hes struggled and has had to take a load of real shit work to survive. iv been glad as someones gotta take the sh/t in this area … as long as its not me!
by contrast im not a very outgoing personality and lead a more humble existance dont bang my drum much but simply using the ladders has meant work has flowed in constantly
@Gaz I would continue doing outside only like everyone else in your area. Keep it simple. When you clean insides, there is always stuff you need to move to get to the windows. Cleaning outside only on every house would be so nice!
I strongly disagree! We don’t need our windows washed every 4 weeks. It simply isn’t needed. Different weather would be my guess as why they need monthly washing in England.
PS
Most of my twice a year accounts look good after 6 months. Once a month would be overkill in New England. I use glass gleam 4 so that might have something to do with my opinion on the frequency needed. Also who’s got a spare $240 a month to have their outside windows washed every month when they still look really good.
As far as the objections to doing it in the States, if we dont see the value in the service, why would our customers? It seems like it comes down to sales pitch, which doesnt have to be much of a pitch at all.
"You could pay $400 to get your windows cleaned once a year and risk having them dirty the next month. Or you could pay a little more over the course of the year and have clean windows from March to November. I know what makes more sense to me.
“And here is another added benefit - you will get priority during our busy seasons, like Holiday season, or special occasions in your life, since you are already on our schedule.”
We should be paying attn to @leavingnc , if he is willing to share some of his expertise.
Customers in the UK are happy to get windows cleaned every 2-4 weeks. To us paying someone £10 to clean our homes is simple. The customers hate cleaning windows but love to see them clean. We don’t have screens protecting the glass from dirt.
Homes in the uk are much smaller than the US and actually more expensive the further into London you go.
So how it works in the UK a cleaner such as my self will build a round of monthly customers of say 200-400. Our rounds depend on how close customers are and how many houses we can get on one area. Typically houses we clean are attached to other houses. So jobs tend to be not far apart.
Although it’s very unheard of to see a window cleaning business that cleans insides and tracks. I understand the frustration of moving objects out the way etc.
But to me cleaning less for more is a good option. Why clean 20 houses if you can clean 10 etc.
Perhaps if I’m thinking like this I should look into starting up a side project for a cleaning company. Could help. Any of you own a cleaning company attached to your window one?
I use WFP and GG4 myself, and see the same results as you. Pretty clean glass when I return for the second clean of the year.
I think the biggest difference here and there, is they likely get more rain. Rain in and of itself doesn’t dirty glass. But it’s probably dirt that runs off the house that is the culprit of dirty glass over there.
Here I see dust that settles on windows, gets a light wetting from rain, and makes it look like spots. When in reality there wasn’t enough rain to wash the window, so it just moved dirt around. Dew can do the same.
What I find my clients can’t stand the most, is bird crap. But they aren’t going to pay my minimum every month to keep them cleaned up either.
I did side by side comparisons for a few years and saw no difference. The guys in the U.K. are really into WFP & GG4 so it must be the weather. I can’t imagine the Brits cleaning windows that DO NoT need cleaning.
Yeah, it’s just different. I don’t mind doing a storefront business for $20-25 if they’re going to be on the schedule every 2 or 4 weeks and you build those routes up with a few hundred customers, you’re solid. For houses, my minimum would be $100 because there is more drive time, more hassle, and more work.
If I have a house really close to one of my routes then I don’t mind going down to $50 on a small house because I’m not going to wash the screens every time. I have a dentist like that, big house but she only wants the living room and dining area done, she’s right off one of my routes, so $50 is easy for 30 minutes worth of work.
I stay in Scotland so it’s typically raining every few days and windy most. Although right now it’s 19 degrees and 19 degrees to us Scots is BBQ weather.
We typically use dish soap to clean windows and we are big on WFP but @jonnyald will confirm most are happy to see the guys climb the ladder with a scrim over there shoulders, some actually prefer traditional.
I find with monthly customers the windows ain’t that dirty at all. The chance of birdmess but you can see out them no problem for months and not worry about it.
Owning and operating a multi-service company should probably have its’ own thread.
I own a multi-service cleaning company. Multi-service is the only way my company can survive in a small town at the end of the road.
The majority of the gross revenue comes from janitorial cleaning of commercial buildings nightly or weekly. Carpet cleaning and WC was an included service for some of the clients and was done on a casual “as-needed” basis. Before I bought the company >99% of the gross revenue was from that client base. There were several clients that paid extra for WC once or twice a year.
Since I bought the company 18 months ago I have put my growth efforts into “day jobs” WC, carpet cleaning, floor waxing and high overhead dusting and will add screen repair soon.
Challenges:
a multi-service company needs more $ to be tied up into a bigger variety of equipment,
branding is more difficult than a company that specializes,
and it also takes longer to train employees in a variety of equipment and cleaning techniques.
My current employee is reliable and thorough and is doing a good job with the janitorial cleanings but she isn’t strong enough to operate the heaviest carpet cleaning machine (104 lbs. empty, 175 lbs. when full of solution) and hasn’t developed the speed to be a window cleaner. A minor annoyance is that I am frequently loading and unloading equipment in the van versus having permanently mounted equipment. Moving heavy stuff in and out of my garage and van during the icy winter can be a bit challenging, especially when I get home real late at night (this is typically when I can clean carpets and wax floors for businesses) and can’t leave equipment in the van due to freezing.
i don’t have much expertise, we have 4 monthly residentials (we offer exterior cleaning of 20 panes for $50, 3 out of four have us do 1-6 more panes than 20 and we charge a comencerate rate) and 2 out of the 4 were the ones that asked for monthly, wr just had a plan to match their desire, the other two were 1, already quaterly and 2, asking about quarterly so they were already used to the idea of multiple cleanings per year. we made a little pamphlet explaining out 3 most common recurring services (monthly exterior, quarterly exterior, and quarterly in and out) i want to build out a “route” of momthly and quarterly exterior homes.
