French doors usually have 15 panes each, at $1 per pane that is $15 per side, $30 for both sides. Often times there are double door French panes side by side; $30 for one side of both, $60 for both sides of both.
If she already accepted the quote then do the job and track your time. If you get done in an amount of time where your have more than met your hourly rate announce to her that you are happy to do the job for x instead of the original quote as you may have over quoted because french panes have so many factors. Don’t come out and say I read stuff wrong on the wcr or I am new just make it sound like hey I bid the job in a knowledgeable way but having done it I may have over thought the work on the cut ups. Make it should like a professional mistake not that you are a newb is what I am trying to get at. So for example lets say someone has an hourly goal of 80hr and they bid a job for $500.00 and get it done in 4 hrs which would be $320.00. You can come to the homeowner and when its time to pay say "Hey Mrs. Jones cut up windows are a lot of work and in my experience usually come with some trouble however after doing this job I am happy to do it for $320.00 instead of the $500.00. Now don’t get in a habit of doing this where customers start to think your quote is always gonna be less than quoted or you punish yourself and your profits by lowering prices as you get faster. However on this specific job if you quoted $3 per square outside only that is a massive over quote and you could make it right by giving her a joyful suprise when the job is done and that you made a professional not newb mistake.
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I would still wfp the outside, it’s basically as if it were raining outside.
If it leaks then it’s not your fault, that is the integrity of the house and it requires some repairs.
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Awesome thank you so much. I will definitely give her a better price. I’ll post tomorrow and let you know how it goes if you’re interested. Thank you for the advice I really appreciate it.
Yes I’m interested, hope all goes well!!!
i wanted to quote a house but it just wasn’t saying anything interesting.
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You must learn the technique to clean French doors. They’re always a pain in the glass. It should be one motion. You need a six inch brass ettore squeegee. Maybe a 4 depending on size.
Start in the middle go up to your left corner across to the right corner, then diagonal to the bottom left corner and back up and straight down to finish in the bottom right corner. Try wiping just the left edge of your squeegee rubber the (first inch) after each window cleaned. It takes about 4 seconds a window. Do them in rows, the top row, then go to the next row to prevent any runs, or drips. Wipe the ledge after a row.
Another trick is to use very soapy water( more like a foam) on cut up glass. Just put soap directly on scrubber. Less runs this way. More like a foam your wiping off. Use micro towels after everything is dry to fix mistakes. Good luck. I have a resteraunt with 640 of these cut up pieces of glass. I train new people on this after they get down the basics. It takes a few times to get this figured out, but once you do, your a window cleaning machine.
Thank you for the advice, but as I said above I’ve been cleaning windows for 10 years. I’m plenty fast and good at what I do. My point in making this post wasn’t how to be a better window cleaner, but how to bid for a job. That’s what I’m not good at yet, asking for money.
But thanks again, I’m not trying to sound snarky or anything.
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People in my area turn down $1.25 for a french pane in & out
Alright so I did the job this morning. It went way faster than I thought, I’ve been doing commercial for a while and it’s been a minute since I’ve done a house, I forgot how fast it can go.
It was just two sets of these doors, 90 panes altogether. Took about an hour with scarping paint off a few and cleaning all the wood.
So at 3$ a pane I definitely overbid. I told her when I was finished that I overestimated and finished way faster than I thought I would and wanted to drop the price down to 100$, I also trimmed some branches over her pool. She was very understanding, and of course very happy that I lowered the price, and I didn’t feel embarrassed or stupid or anything. So I’m working on a more conservative estimate process, definitely will stick with 15$ per side of a french door.
She was so happy with the windows she almost cried, she’d never even seen a pro work, let alone had hers done professionally. They were a mess. Got her booked quarterly and she took a handful of my cards to give to her friends, she said she’ll be singing my praises.
Learned a valuable lesson from all this, thank you to everyone who helped me out.
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By people do you mean the customer or the window cleaners?
I like all of this minus the trimming branches because now she could refer you to people that it’s like he lowered my price and did work outside of window cleaning. Doing something extra in line with window cleaning like hitting a mirror for 2 minutes is a good thing to go above and beyond but lowering the price and then trimming branches lol that will make customers make you their little yes man. How long did the doors only take you?
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I thought about that later and I agree. But I just won’t bring my snippers and loppers anywhere else and just tell them no I can’t do the tree sorry.
The two sets of three doors took about an hour. Scraped paint off a few, really shined up the wood, they were trashed. Very greasy.
I’m not sure I would have jumped from $270 all the way down to $100 as you could have done a giant discount not so far down to 100 and she still would have been happy however it sounds like you did cover up the over charge better. This is something I have confidence you can figure out with in time. In regards to doing extra things for customers that is also something you will figure out with time and it is a balance. You don’t want to be the service provider that has to charge for everything and is like I’m not doing nothing for free screw relationships I got to get paid $10 to clean a mirror but you also don’t want to be the guy that gives everything cuz you will train customers to expect it. Here’s the advice I can give you imagine your booked 6 weeks out phone’s going off like crazy and your customer asks hey would you mind doing this extra thing. If it’s something you could do under those circumstances do it for free and make the customer feel like they got a little extra something for nothing which helps with loyalty if it’s not something you would do under those circumstances charge for it or respectfully decline. The last thing you want to do is be in your business 4 years from now and this lady’s getting 90 panes cleaned for a hundred bucks and trees trimmed.
Keep the loppers and just trim what you need to get to the windows. You may want to say something like - “It isn’t part of what I do but I also trimmed that branch that was scraping against your roof”. A one and done is fine, but “Landscaper” is separate business, like a painter who trims some minor vegetation to make his job easier, otherwise that job goes to someone else. Good deal, now sell a complete window clean next time.
That thread is 8 years old
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Customers
Totally agree. It’s those extra things that can get you in trouble!
25 years ago, when I just started with a window cleaning company, a customer asked us to dust some cobb webs off with a pole above a cabinet. The guy I was working for accidentally knocked over a china cup that sat on top. The cup was irreplaceable. A family heirloom.
He did locate one just like it, but the people wouldn’t sell unless he bought the whole set. The cup alone was valued at $4200. Only 5 sets like it in the world. Made in 1928. The entire set could be bought for $45000. Needless to say, it was a bad experience. Of course he did the $350 home for free, and offered to clean her windows once a year for life. The lady was pissed! He eventually had to call an attorney, and his insurance company. They settled for $23,000. His rates trippled after that! Insurance company dropped him, he had a hard time finding affordable insurance. He had to re incorporate, and put the business in his wife’s name. His wife winds up sleeping with the attorney he used when he went to small claims court. He finally gets divorced, and his wife sold all his contracted work. The guy pays alimony, and child support on top of that. He eventually began drinking, and his life spiraled out of control. True story! But… its how I got started. I was just helping this guy out to make some college money. So please think twice before doing that little extra!
Jesus christ. I hate working inside.
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Thats what made me itch, as well…
Im vacillating a bit, as proof in my latest posts.
(I love the trust/faith, but I hate MY results, and feel like shit charging for results Im not happy with )
- Id kind of prefer to go the route of, “I know a guy”
- This way, Im not obligated to do 'a courtesy"
- The trick is… finding “the guy” you refer, to stand up to your standards!
