It’s started to snow today, so far just a dusting. But were supposed to get 2 inches or so buy the end of today. Usually Toronto gets it long after Buffalo gets blasted, but not this year I guess.
Anyway, still going out to work today! should be fun.
At least I got my snowtires installed yesterday. Just in the nick of time.
BRR We got 3 or 4 inches on Monday. Last year our first snow wasnt to January 15th… We still worked through it.
[B]HIJACK[/B]
[U]Chris[/U]: Buy or make screen clip tools (clasp, chain, spring clamp) for your crew if you haven’t already.
We had our first snow early here. We got about 3 inches just after halloween, but it only stayed about 2 days, and have had several dustings since, but nothing has lasted yet. But it will. The temps have dropped here in the last couple days. It hasn’t gotten above frezzing for the last 2 days, lows around 9F at night.
We got just under a inch last night. Last year it wasn’t until late December. Oh well time to break out the toboggan!:rolleyes:
Yeah we normally do carry those… This day just happened to be a weird situation where we didn’t have them, or expect to have needed them.
So i get up this morning…still sick with my cold…the sun is shining, im thinking its gonna be nice to get out and get some fresh air, and clean a few commercial jobs i have to do today, then i look at the thermometer it read -15Celcius (not sure what that is in Fahrenheit)
Oh well i shouldn’t be surprised at this temp up here at this time of year, im glad we only have a light dusting of snow to contend with, I think Toronto has more snow than we do in North Bay lol
we only got a couple centimeters here. They were predicting up to 20 centimeteres. That’s always the way in T.O. they predict large storms and then it misses us.
Chris: How do you manage to get residential work in winter?
Had my first experience winter window cleaning today. YIKES!
I did the interiors of a house (up for sale) on WED when we were getting all that rain, today I had to do the exteriors. Started at 9AM and it was frickin cold. The first day using WWF in my solution. Damn I needed a lot. I couldn’t believe how much the solution was slushing up on the glass. After I got the mix right it was ok doing the job. Detailing was a bitch tho. As soon as the huck towel got a little wet it froze and stiffened up. When through a lot of rags.
Oh well, all part of the biz I guess. Maybe I should have waited til later in the day to do them.
Main thing is, I got paid in full plus tip and a promise to do the guys new house as soon as he gets moved in.
Hey Mike we usually don’t… Fortunately we have a decent amount of commercial to keep our key guys busy and to keep the lights on. The seasonality of residential drives me crazy. Its a vicious circle… We train up a great group of guys/gals and then have to lay them off every winter. Some come back in the spring some have found other work by then.
Have you ever had anyone file for unemployment when you lay them off? Do you make your seasonal employees sign a “seasonal employment” agreement?
Yeah a few usually file. I have never heard of a seasonal employment agreement. Can you elaborate on it?
Beautiful view>> heres a tip for winter window cleaning…if at all possible, try and work on the sunny side first and follow the sun during the day…I know this will not always work, but especially first thing in the morning ill hit the sunny side first, then worry about the rest once the temp has warmed a bit.
Also as far as detailing…that gets tricky, i find especially with big gloves its tough to detail properly so i do take off my glove often for the areas i need to detail. The rags will freeze up on you too if they get too wet, i try to change to a dry one often. I have tons of rags in the van at all times so its not a problem.
In time you will learn to mix your wwf with your water properly. Try using less water than you normally do and then compensating for wwf. otherwise youll be adding tons of wwf for a bucket, and unless your cleaning tons of windows with it, youll be wasting it. In winter i never put more than 2 gallons of water in my bucket…then i add wwf to do the job. if i get low on water or its not strong enough and freezing i have room to add more wwf…the colder it is the less water i use. otherwise id have my bucket full to the brim. This week ive used the -45 purple wwf from Walmart, its like 2.27 a 4L i think, its not too bad, stained the velcro on my scrubbers though lol.
This winter when the temperature hits all time lows, im gonna get Jen to take a pic of me cleaning windows outside to add to my website lol
Were you using cold water or warm? Although it’s nice to feel warm water you’ll waste a ton of wwf that way. That is because the alcohol steams up and evaporates so you lose the antifreezing agent.
Always you the coldest water you can get.
There is also a theory that hot water freezes faster than cold. I think the jury is out on that, but use cold water anyway.
I know you were asking Chris but I am still getting calls from my Yellow Book ad. I’m scheduling houses into the 3rd week of December.
Great advice Eric and Mike.
I started with 3 gallons of water, my usual 3 squirts of Sunlight and added a bit of wwf to start and added more as needed. I don’t know why I was using 3 gallons of water; I only had the exterior of this house to do. Just an hour of work.
I remember you saying Mike to use cold water which I did. I think the biggest mistake was using too much water to begin with. I also could have started a bit later in the day. But even when I got home (around 11 am) it was only -6°C.
I guess like on the hottest days, ya also gotta learn to work faster.
Mark, i use less water for sure on cold days, and more wwf…just keep the amounts to what you need, that way you dont waste too much wwf, cuz its pricey unless you buy by the case.
Also you can ad the wwf directly to your stripwasher, either in addition to or instead of to your bucket. I live on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains, so there is a diference of 1400 feet in elevation between one end of my route and the other end. Many times I start out doing lower elevations, then as I move up to higher elevation I add more, sometimes instead of adding to my bucket, I just add directly to my strip washer.
Are there any techniques beside using yellow pages that allow you to get work in the winter?
The only time I ever heard of one is a couple years ago I was cleaning windows at a swim and tennis club and a kid was filling out an application for a life guard position I think. Anyway, I over heard one of the forms he had to sign was that he knows that the position he was being hired for was seasonal and he won’t file for unemployment when he is let go. I didn’t see the actual form and I don’t know if it is legal or not. Does an employee or employees that file for unemployment effect your unemployment insurance rates?
