Storm windows suck, I am tired of them, and the sore fingers!

So beginning Jan 1st 2011 my rate for storms are will be $20 a piece(40 per window)…
Last job I broke 2, the next job tried to cut my finger tips off…Im sick of them…there are too many nice new windows out there to be cleaned and if a client has storms and they want them cleaned by me they will pay through the nose…aarrgg!!

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Yes, they suck, but if the home owner has ever cleaned them, they know that too. Guys in my area hate them like you, so I do them and make good money at it. I just have a knack for doing them and don’t mind. I hate the first time. After that you can plan and charge for the following services.

I stopped doing storms when I broke my leg. Don’t miss them a bit. But I’ve never been able to charge what I can make doing casements, man hour wise I mean. Same with houses that used to have storms but got rid of them and screwed aluminum sliders on the outside. I don’t do them either.

This is why we dropped the yellow pages 8 years ago, I was getting calls from all areas of the city. I still have a few of those customers but I prefer advertising in for windows in newer areas that only have casements… though I haven’t done that either in about 5 years. (I’m mostly lawns. It’s strange, I prefer older areas for lawns and newer areas for windows. I guess if I get back heavy into windows next year I’ll be scooping up some take apart jobs again.:o)

How did the two storms break? Were they triple track storms or some other type?

I’m right there with you; $40 a window or find someone else. (I always refer them to other window cleaners in the area though, that seems nicer than “NO, sorry.”)

They’re also extremely difficult to schedule because they’re so unpredictable time-wise when compared to newer windows.

It all depends on the shape an condition, but my pricing on storm windows should definitely come at a premium considering the time and energy it takes to properly and SAFELY clean them.

I would say I hate cleaning storms, but at premium pricing, I welcome them.

P.S. - Its all about taking your time with storms. I did 10 sets on my parent’s house today, started at 2PM, just finished up a half hour ago.

That was with a pretty good amount of dilly-dallying, lollygagging and goofing off as well. Probably could’ve banged it out in 2-3 hours

That’s funny… I just did my grandmothers.
(storms + cutups)

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You guys are funny… here in Kansas, Johnson County and Topeka here I make a fortune doing double hung plus those with the french style because you can charge an arm and a leg for them due to the fact there are no takers on them mostly due to the pain in the butt they can be for a vast number of reasons.

Just finished a house today actually old style double hung plus french, me, my wife and our helper 5 hours (almost) $900, small house 15 windows or so, plus 3 or 4 small doors they are good money once you get the hang of doing them. If they want them done cheap they can cell someone else or else call me and I will charge way more than I do for simply glass for reasons stated above.

Damn I love my job ha ha

$60 a man hour just isn’t worth it to me for storms. Too much hassle and liability.

Actually its more like $170 between my wife and i per hour because i have a new guy helping me these days starting off at $10 an hour although in time will pay him $14 an hour so $170 between my wife and I per hour was fairly worth it I think.

Most of the time i do double hung or a mix of double hung and french i clear at least $150 an hour after expenses hence why I’m more than glad to take these jobs and on top of the price I charge, I also charge an additional $25 per window if I have to remove it from the exterior due to the window case being painted shut or otherwise.

Double hung are fairly easy if you take your time and time the job correctly.

Maybe I’m lucky. I mean I hate doing them and never broke one. I charge $2 each. Rarely do I run across screwed in ones and when we do we tell the customer SORRY NO CAN DO PRICY. Never had an issue with telling them either. They understand they are a pain. I have run across ones that are a bitch to get out. We have some windows here where the lower sash needs to be raised to the upper and taken off to get the storm out. Those I will not do at all anymore. One job a couple of year ago took me 2 days and that was only on 15 windows. I was seriously ****ed. It wasn’t getting them out or back in that was the pain. It was the springs either breaking or coming off putting the lower sash back in. It was weird too cause the guy lived in the house for years. I thought he just moved in. All he had was a chair and TV set. Nothing else in any room. Very strange. Kind of gave me the spooks but he was like 100 years old so I could have just pushed him over. lol. I also thought it was strange that someone his age wanted the windows cleaned. I figured he prob had a couple of years left in him and if I was him I would have been spending it on some nice ladies to hang out at my house lol.

Ray, I’m hoping you meant at least $20 per and not the $2 in your post.

BTW, we just had a piece break this past week. $38 to replace on a $200 job. Earnings/hour were not great on that one.

The key to storm windows is getting a professional suction cup or two. This helps temendously in getting a good grip on then while removing them and installing them. If you have really old storms that have bottom pins and tracks that are stuborn, pretreat all the windows when you first arrive and then when you come back around the penitrating oil has done its magic and helps get them out much quicker. When you go to put them back in, the task will be much easier too.


Actually
, that’s less then $60 a man hour.

Has anyone seen the new Pella storms that swing open on a hinge? Got some the other day with mini blinds that can’t be raised and I couldn’t remove them. I know Pella thinks this is an improvement . . . I don’t.

My goal is to build my business until I get to the point where I tell them on the phone, “Sorry, we don’t have time to do storms.”

Nope the post is correct, that’s $2.00 for the lower and $2.00 for the upper. There are a lot of houses that still have these windows and I think people are tossing away a serious money maker. Guys have one bad day and they’re going to toss away an entire classification of windows? Let me put it this way. If you had employees and you did not have to clean the storms. Would you care about hurting fingers? I really don’t understand how people are breaking these things. You guys must be running through these houses like bulls and rushing the work. They are simple, you push in the clips, pull out the bottom an slide the thing down, tilt and it’s out. You always hold them with two hands and never by the edge of one frame. Again I don’t have any problems with them. Sure there are those instances where they are a pain, but that’s when you blast out the $20 fee for problematic windows. I have storms in my house and I don’t maintain them and they come out just fine. Best advice I can give. SLOW DOWN.

BTW I have a customer who has one of those prefab sunroom with 9 windows. The entire thing is storms. No hungs at all. Just a simple metal frame with two large storms. The windows are brand new, litterly. I charge her $204 to do the entire house outside only and in and out for the storms. Takes about 1 1/2 hrs for one person at $15 per hour. What’s the issue? People going to toss that business away?

You bayou folks have storms? I thought it never got below 70 down there?:wink:

Wow $2 on a double hung? Jesus what you charging on a pella 50c!