Its the nature of the beast. I am not a window cleaner per se. I have a cleaning business. Done hundreds of construction homes, countless rentals, and many private homes want OSW. Yeah more jobs a day is more money. Folks around where I am are finicky. In and out in an hour or so is great but better look really good. Since I don’t rely on windows alone I can afford to work my routine.For me 2 hrs is about right. Dust is one thing construction debris is another. You try to speed thru the glass removing paint and mortar it can nip you bad. Get into a good routine and a good rythm. What I run into is more like face to glass. First time, so do what you have to do to get them clean. Scrub that sill, remove the gunk off windows, scrape, scrub with steel/bronze wool. Attention to detail. All the stuff you left for next time will come back to haunt you.I began using an auto wash brush with very thick bristles to scrub everything and rinse it off, clean the glass, and then detail. Get a cart you can pull around with all your goodies.
What do I know? All I know is I get called for the really crappy homes. Eviction type places or those that haven’t seen a cleaning in years. Keep getting calls so must be doing something right. You might want to see your friends “First Time” cleaning with those I/OSW in 1.5 hrs. I guarantee your windows look better. If not hang around him and see what he is doing to be so fast. You may be a bit like me, have a little OCD so you need to identify what is acceptable. I have a set of standards of what looks right. It may take 5 minutes or 15 minutes but I meet that standard. With repetition, knowing what to do, and what to use it will become instinct or a reflex. Don’t over think. You know what to do, just do it. You will become faster.
Good Luck
Well put.
As a good friend told me, “The old gold diggers never really made money. It was everyone servicing them, doing the things that nobody else wanted to do.”
Some consider our work as boring, yucky or unglamorous, but that’s exactly why I like it - low stress (boring), I’m an overgrown 5-year-old (yucky) and I don’t have to be a genius or a super model to be able to do it (unglamorous).
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LOL Your one of a kind on this forum, you get me laughing almost every post you do.
[MENTION=26450]DustOffTherapy[/MENTION] In the end, no matter how seriously you take it. If you can’t laugh, it ain’t worth it.
Anybody who finds me funny is usually very tolerant and has a happy disposition to start with. To put it another way: the best audience members one could ask for. On the other hand, I’m not very good about turning grumpy people around. That’s a gift that’s outside of my skill set, one that I could really use.
I did figure something out, though, as far as my cleaning time is concerned: my equipment is sub-par. I’m confident that getting clips on my channels will help a lot with reducing detailing, which is where a heavy chunk of my time is at. It’s no cure-all, but every little bit helps. I’m going to pick up some clips and see how they do. I’ll post results (for any new cleaner that’s going to eventually end up in my shoes - woe is they).
I’m usually laughing alone, though… 
About 85% will claim to be the Usain Bolt of window cleaning.
Until you realize they spend about 2 minutes per window cleaning up slop, runs and drips.
Under the disguise of ‘detailing.’
Fast is when you get in & out plus screens done on someones lunch break.
Till then, keep doing what you’re doing…
Ha Ha my friend, well put. We learn a lot and figure out something new every day. Clips? Same here. When I found an old brass unger and wondered why does this work so well. Old, corroded, heavy. Hmmm, hard rubber and clips.Those little things make a big difference. Your pic reminds me of a reply i made earlier. Not the best fanner but getting better. Pull quick though. Said, one day I will become a squeegee ninja but for now more like Squeegee Panda Po (Po the kung fu panda). I have a set of doors that I feel like your pic every time I clean then. Kids go to the ice cream shop next door and smear the fingers all over these doors plus the sun bakes them all day long. I feel like the pic, ready for battle.
Let me know how your next first clean was.
Hey Brother, mate, you just made me feel much better about myself. I’m 52 and only started cleaning windows 3-4 weeks ago. I started doing it as a way to free myself of a full time job to do more acting, MCing, Voiceover etc but accidentally fell in love with it and now have no time for all that. I had a big job yesterday at a retirement village, a brilliant contract I got through my wife. I was really enjoying myself, trying different techniques and being totally thorough, vacuuming the tracks, washing the screens and being very particular. 8-9 hours later, I was tired but happy that I had done a good job when the men’s group were having a “Happy Hour” and were joking about how long I had been there. I said, yeah, I’m thinking of moving in. One of them said very aggressively, ‘we’ve got enough idiots already’. I know they were fairly drunk and only joking but it just ****ed me right off and upset me to tell the truth. Reading your story and all the positive feedback has got me excited to get out there again tomorrow and be slow but thorough, knowing that speed will come.
Mate, you and I should team up and call ourselves ‘Panefully Slow’. Keep going brother and pass on the improvements, I’m getting better as I type!
Alan
Clean Windows 4 You
NSW, Australia
We are not slow. We take our time because we like doing it. I could knock out many a day but do have other jobs at night to work so don’t need to stack the day. If you did do quickly maybe you can have a little “my time” but tell the wife those windows were really bad, took all day. Glass half full thing. If she finds out I can fly thru this stuff I might end up running around all day doing other jobs or even worse… CHORES!
Now that’s funny. That’s going to keep me smiling all week. You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Australia… Additionally, there are tons of Korean transplants there, so I’d fit right in too…
Good call on the hard squeegee rubber. I still need to get some myself. It’s 100+ degrees Fahrenheit here, so the glass turns my current squeegee rubbers into putty (they grip to the windows despite the cleaning solution). The high temps in your area, Copperas Cove, seem to be close to ours, so it makes sense that the hard works for you.
Going to get my clips this weekend (was real busy and missed the chance to get them last week). We’ll see how they work, despite the softs.
I ordered the Wagtail and put it on my 30" and 18" ninja channel. Like night and day difference. Do more pulling than fanning but it works well. Brass unger will get some too. Temps are cooling off in mid to high 90s this week. Better than last year. Over 100 days 100+. Rained 1 time in July and not until Sep got a little. Like every year get the 25 winds and see the dust haze.
Clips helped until the rubber started going bad. Went with a roll because of the different sizes I have… You definitely need hard in AZ Think I will get a Wagtail.
Wife wanted me to PW the fence next week but guess what “I have windows to do”. Might take a day or so to finish them all. Ha Ha
Wow. The clips make a huge difference for edges. There’s very minimal detailing on the edges with proper technique (being lazy about putting pressure on the ends still produces ugly edges). Took me a few seconds to detail - before the clips, I was spending a few minutes or more.
I used the clips to “dog ear” the squeegee rubber, as described by Mark in a Tool Talk video (additional credit to Tony Evans, as Mark brings out):
There’s a small difference in how I’m using the plastic clips: I have the clips in a vertical position in relation to the channel, whereas in the video, Mark has the clips running horizontally with, or parallel to, the squeegee channel. I haven’t tried it with the horizontal orientation, but I’m going to keep it the way it is, since it’s working.
He’s alive welcome back lost one…LOL
[MENTION=67]Beautiful View[/MENTION] has tons of good tips…
Just trying to avoid putting too much time into the forums. I keep lying to myself that I’m being productive by “researching”, when I really know it’s just thumb-twiddling activity. Need to hit the pavement some more, but the keyboard keeps calling me…
Go get that work…
