What are the pros and cons of adding this to your window business?
More work!!!
More money
Any advise to someone adding gutter cleaning?
Just do it!
24’ & 32’ Ladders Will help. We have pulley’s on our to raise and lower clean and dirty gutter buckets, for speeding up the process when walking the roof.
Agreed…this is one of those “just trust us” kind of things.
Do it- you’ll thank us later… seriously.
How would i price gutter cleaning
depends what your business model is. you wanna be a craigslist special where any house is $80, or do you want to give your customers a unique value proposition and charge more for being something different, or even be somewhere in beween. walk around the house, figure out how long its gonna take, and then how much you want to make for the work your doing, or even better, how much you want to pay someone to do the work for your comapny and what your % is going to be. many ways to go about this, figure what works best for you.
and as far s pros/cons:
pros: a lot
cons: not many, unless your afraid of heights and cant handle ladders
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you really cant go wrong. less overhead than window cleaning.
How much do you charge and what tools beside ladders are needed?
I charge between .75 and a dollar a ft. I use the gutter scoop that WCR sells, a bucket and a hose to do a final cleaning. You will also want a bunch of trash bags and maybe a trash can. I take all the debris off the clients property. Some guys use a leaf blower but I have never tried that.
After referring out all this work to other companies I have decided I’m going to do it. Unlike window cleaning and pressure washing, gutter cleaning is a more necessary service. If your gutters clog or your roof gets covered in leaves, they can overflow and damage shingles and facia and soffit.
I would suggest that window cleaning is a necessary service. Maybe not part of home maintenance that everyone sees value in, until their windows are all crud, but still if you want to have a nice home and spend a bunch of money on landscaping, pool maintenance, great floors and window treatments then professional window cleaning is important. Convince yourself of that or you will never be able to convince your customers of it. Certainly gutter cleaning is structurally important because gutters filled with heavy debris cause sags and pooling in the gutters, rodent nests, ants and roaches and sometimes plants growing out of them. I used to charge $1.00 - $1.50 per foot. But now with dodging rats, wasps, ants, spiders and yucky debris all over me it is $2.00 per foot. Sure, you want me to scrub the outside so it’s as clean as possible? That is between $2.00 and $3.00 per foot depending on how bad it is. I work hard for the money.
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I think he’s saying that if you don’t clean your gutters you can end up with other problems. If you don’t have your windows cleaned, you have dirty windows but not other problems.
This space for rent!
Can’t there be the problem of etched glass from years of neglect? Baked in mineral deposits on the glass from never having them cleaned? Frames and tracks stained from years of built up dirt? I see those as problems in the maintenance of a nice home. Windows are not cheap to buy and install - at least not good ones. So dirty windows can be a problem if you look at it like that and one day hire a window cleaner to do the impossible.
Yes, but he had been referring other companies to do gutter cleaning, not doing it himself. I understand your point, but in general anything to do with windows is a cosmetic problem whereas gutter problems can lead to structural problems.
This space for rent!
True point.
I don’t mean to start something. I have had my own window cleaning company for over 22 years. And before that I worked with another company. It is my bread and butter. I do believe that the main reason people get their windows cleaned is cosmetic whereas gutter cleaning neglect can cause permanent damage like gutters rusted through, the weight of gutter debris pulling the gutters right off your eaves, damage to roof, water draining into attic etc. This thread asked the question should you add gutter cleaning to the menu. If you make less than $50K-$70K you probably won’t call me to clean your windows. But you might call me to clean your gutters.
The guy I have been referring the gutter cleaning to very often makes double the cost of the cleaning because he offers gutter and roof repair also. I think it all depends on how far away from cleaning services you want to get.
