Need help and quick. I want to land this job but don’t want to short myself or rip this guy off. I took pictures of the larger of two homes, this home has 378 panes of glass (French pane inside and out) and he was interested in the premium package (cleaning the tracks out very thurogh) SO what is a fair rate? I was thinking $5 a pane…? Also there are some very decorative custom French panes where a traditional squeegee just won’t work, how would I clean these windows on the inside? For the exterior I have a WFP that I just purchased. Also, the second house has 247 panes of glass, he asked if he could get some type of discount doing both homes at the same time
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My discount policy is only for repeat customers, or for customers who refer more work to me. I guess you could count the second house as a referral, since you are kind of getting a 2-for-1. Just make sure whatever you do the price is still good for YOU.
For tiny interior panes, if you can’t fit a little squeegee inside then Sprayaway works pretty well.
On a home like that, I would not charge per pane but say $10-12 per window for in + out, and add $3-5 per track for a thorough scrub and flush. If you think you can get more then by all means go for it.
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@Samuel has a good thought to just bid the entire window as one price. However, you may not be able to go back and look it over again. So in that case, $5 a pane sounds reasonable to me for something like that.
Let me ask you a question. How long do you think it will take and with how many people?
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This is my first inside and outside job, I’ve only done two exterior only homes before. So I have no idea how long this will take. On my website I state that luxury homes are starting at $849 for the premium package.
Boy you’re in for a deuzy then. This is a good job to learn from. Another question. How much would you like to get for this job?
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If you have never done inside work this could be a very painful first job to learn from.
More windows = more that can go wrong
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Well, doing $5 a pane comes out to over $3300…I was thinking of telling him I’d do both homes for $3k. But that just seems like sooooo much money lol.
Tip of the day
don’t advertise prices on your website, if you want to put numbers on your website you should offer coupons for “$xx off” and include an expiration date (call to action)
A house with 35 6/6 windows with storm units will cost much more than a home with 35 standard double hung windows. More than double the price, and a lot more work involved.
So I would adjust your website and eliminate pricing “for luxury homes”
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Yeah I’m nervous about this one. What would the best way to go about this be? Maybe tell him it’s just too much and be professional about it? Or just give it a shot?
If you are not comfortable tell him you are too busy at the moment but could do it in a few weeks. Then try and get some inside work experience in the meantime. You still need to give him a price.
You could also turn it into a positive by saying it would be better to wait until after pollen season ends. But the pictures don’t show many trees around so that might not work.
I actually bit this pricing chart off another successful window cleaner. I’m going to leave it up a little longer and see how it goes but that’s interesting that you recommend not advertising pricing. I do disclose on the pricin that pricing starts at the stated price, and explain things like French windows and storm windows change these numbers drastically.
I do want to disclose I have a fairly busy route during the week for small commercial jobs, doing inside and out. But as far as being inside a home, this would be a first.
So what are you thinking I should price him at? I’m thinking if I get a few different channels cut exactly to size for the French windows I could knock it out fairly quick…this is only a 2 man crew tho. Me inside, my employee outside with WFP. (Which hasn’t even came in the mail yet so we haven’t had a chance to play with the WFP yet either 
) I’ll end up practicing with it on my aunts house, but go figure this guy of all people calls me for a quote ha
Give it a shot!.
1500 for first 1000 for second. 3-5 days for a new guy good luck
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Only you know if its “too much”, but if you bid you will need to go in with confidence. Assume that this guy isn’t broke or poor or he wouldn’t be looking to get his windows cleaned. $3,300 may seem like a lot of money to you, but it likely isn’t a lot of money to him. But for $3,300 he is going to want a professional job so do a good job. Price is totally subjective. You would make money and gain experience at $2,000, but you have to decide what its worth to you and hope he sees the value in the price you give. Personally, I’d feel better quoting a lower price until I gain experience. The price has a psychological effect on you for two reasons… one, if you don’t get the job you’re going to kick yourself for overbidding it and two, if you get the job you’re going to kick yourself for underbidding it. 
He’s likely going to ask how long it will take so be ready with an answer. I would schedule the houses separately and give yourself a buffer of a couple hours. If you think it will take 5, tell him 7 hours.
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I appreciate your detailed response it kind of gave me a new way to look at this. I am very meticulous, I use gg4 and fresh supplies. I probably take more time cleaning windows than I should but I want them to be flawless, so I have no doubt he will receive professional results
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Are they true cut ups? I’m assuming these aren’t grids inside the glass?
The way I’d bid is is the 4x windows would be $12, the 4+2x windows would be 18, the decorative set would be $12 by themselves and just make it easy on yourself.
I’m not going to count those, but I’d assume that you’d be around $900-1200 for that house. Then maybe $600-700 for the other? Come up with a real number, then measure the cut ups and cut some channels to fit. As for the decorative ones grab a 6pack of sprayaway from sams club.
But the key here is wfp for the outside - I’m guessing you can get the outside done in an hour or two.
I’ve never even heard of sprayaway thanks for the tip. I wrote up some quotes I’m going to post them now, let me know what you guys think
This is what I have so far, I think it came out great. And the more I think about this and I know myself and my standards, I need to charge exactly what I am charging. It’s hard to imagine I’d be there more than a day for both houses, but just counting windows and counting how long I take per window, it’s going to be a few days before I get these homes done I’m guessing.
Yeah no grids inside the glass, it’s real French pane inside and outside and no they don’t pop out either.
