That’s great advice, shoot for quality first! I would add to make sure you use the exact same process each time when cleaning. Why? As you get better it is easier to identify areas of improvement and implement it. When each time is different it is difficult to measure the effect on time, quality, safety and so on a specific change has on the overall job.
Get your process set, then try different tips from others (or experiment). For instance, try using a sea sponge to detail and measure the effect on time, quality and skill level needed. If it is faster but the quality drops, maybe not a good fit for you. If its a difficult maneuver and takes more time it might be difficult to get employees to use it.
I think the end result will end up being that you’ll actually be able to accomplish more than you are now doing and get it done in a fraction of the time…efficiency is a beautiful thing!
little or no detailing and quality window cleaning can and should go hand-in-hand. It takes time and practice to develop the skill, but once mastered will double your speed whithout sacrificing quality. I have worked with alot of window cleaners over the last 13 years who brag about how fast they are but when you go back over their work you can see alll the mistakes.
About five or so years ago I was frustrated with working with cold hands in the winter without wearing gloves and slow production wearing gloves and having to take them off to detail the window. I was also tired of washing towels. I hate washing towels! When I finish for the day I want to be done. Not have a load of laundry to do. I was determined to develop a method of cleaning windows using no rags. I was not slow by any means and I only a detailed but i wanted to get rid of the towels.
I went out for several weeks and took no towels with me to clean windows. I only kept a few in the truck to use on cleaning lamps. At first it was so frustarating and the jobs took me twice as long because I had to sometimes re squeegee the windows two and three times. The frustration was worth it. I developed a method for cleaning windows with little or no detailing at all, even on french windows. Since then I have perfected it and almost doubled my speed, and I was already fast. I now use about one huck towel for a whole weeks worth of window cleaning. I still need towels for lights ans leaded glass. I still detail from time to time but my goal on every window I clean is to not detail at all after squeegeeing the glass.
I can’t give away my method because there are local competotors on this site but I would encourage you to do what I did. Practice on a window and pretend as if you can’t use any towles at all. How will you squeegee that glass leaving no water on the top sides or bottom. It will take several tries and changing where you start on the glass and where you finish and the different angles your squeegee hits the top and sides and the bottom. reevaluate your method over and over. You may not develop a toweless method but you will definaately improve the ammount of detailing you have to do.
One tip- no need to dog ear. Use an ettore brass squeegee for residential. if you look at he corners of all sqeegees the ettore brass squeegee is the only one that is cut square and not rounded at the corners. This keeps pressure on the corners of the rubber allowing you to pull water off the glass along the top and edges of the glass. The rounded corners don’t seem to do as good of a job.
These are all great tips. But remember frequency can affect how many towels you use. Route work, quarterly, or interior office work consumes far less towels than industrial, or annual (or less) exterior work. This is because all surrounding surfaces (frames, sashes & sills) are dirtier. You’ll find, even if damps towels dry out, they’re too dirty to reuse.
I have posted this comment twice already and it did not show up the first two times so if this shows up as a repost please ignore. For me the level of dirt on the windows does not usually affect the number of towels I use. I do all different types of accounts on a regular basis and I can still go a week with 1 huck towel for very limited detailing. I use a sponge and shammy to clean commercial frames and residential tracks and sills so I don’t need any towels for the dirty work. THis is just my experience, others may have a different experience using a different method.
I don’t see how you could do a window and not use a towel or a sponge or whatever. Even if you use the rubber to remove water from the sill it still drips down and the sill still needs to be wiped on top and at the face. I’d love to not use any towels, but without an explanation of how this is even possible I’m left with thinking it isn’t possible (unless the sills and/or frame are left with dirty water on them). Explanation please?? And I could hardly see how a competitor would use this cleaning method as a competitive advantage, … I mean getting jobs is a lot more than just knowing how to clean the windows.
At any rate, if anyone out there is cleaning windows with no toweling at all I’d sure like to know how you do it. What I’d really like is to use no towel and no squeegee. That would be great. Just stare at the window and it’s clean!! That would be a trick.
Keep in mind I said no towels. I did not say no sponge. I use a sponge to clean the track where the screen sits. But for me I don’t use a towel for the glass portion of the window. I try to use a squeegee for that. Yes a competitor can use this as an advantage because I use it as an advantage. THink if you did not have to detail how much faster you would be. If you are faster you can compete based on price if your competitor forces you to. And if he wants to go there you would have the advantage because you can get more work done in a day. So if he drops his price and so do you you are still making a decent amount per hour and he may not be.
I assure you it is possible. I still cary a detail rag on me Although sometimes I don’t. There are a couple of stiles of windows where I still have to do a little detailing if I don’t want to pre wipe the edges. I choose to detail instead of pre wipe because it is faster, do to the fact that I don’t need to detail every edge but I would have to pre wipe all the edges. since I have a detail rag on me anyway I choose to detail those windows. I have not gotten away from it completely 100% but enough to go a week on 1 huck towel and some times have no need to cary a detail rag at all. I only cary a detail towel on commercial jobs to wipe stickers and lettering on the glass. I tried to figure a way to get around that but have not come up with one that is efficient enough time wise. So if anyone has any tips for me on that one I would love to hear it.
Not having to detail comes in very handy in the winter. I can work with ski gloves and my hands stay warm and dry.
So I still have to detail from time to time but about 75% of the time I don’t need to detail. I am not bosting. Just clarifying my position and encouraging the guy who satrted this thread that it can be done and he can do it too.
I carry one towel with me, because I’m not as good as I once was, having taken an extended break from window cleaning.
But in general, I never really spent much time detailing. I always carried a sponge to wipe the squeegee blade and that was about it.
In many cases, you can use your thumb to wipe excess water from the sides, almost like a squeegee rubber.
Cutting one edge and angling your channel UP the other side (not flat against like I see in all these “how to” videos) can eliminate that excess water as well.
