If your doing a two story home and there are screens on the upper windows do you charge extra now for cleaning them? Do you climb a ladder to get to them or go through the customers house room by room to get to them? I keep coming back to this thought when it comes to Water fed window cleaning.
I remove all screens and hand wash them as part of my standard service. I go through the customer’s home and remove all screens.
I wash the screens first. Then I wfp the home while the screens are drying.
I replace the screens as I wash the interiors.
I remove the screens from inside while I brush and vacuum tracks. I wash interiors first, clean the screens, then wash the exteriors while allowing the screens to dry. I replace screens and conduct a final walk-through.
For wfp work if there are exterior screens they get removed first. If the customer wants them washed (it’s a upgrade for us) Mrs Squeegee does that while I wfp the outs. Then we do the insides and finally replace the screens.
I`ve been doing window washing the traditional way for over 20 yrs and want to tap into the WFP methods as Im already putting together a WFP and pricing the other stuff as I go. I have plenty of pole work experience so I dont think the learning curve is going to be a problem for me. The point of staying off the ladder is where my question of going up to the screen came to mind. Traditionally you go up get the screen and give it a wipe while your up there and hold it with your toes while you do the window. But now that your on the ground with a pole do you charge extra for having to go up a ladder to clean all the screens? This is assuming this is exterior only and the customer is not home while your there to do the work. I must sound silly but to me it sounds like extra work now if you have to pull out a ladder for all the upper level screens HHhehehe I know this is a whole new way of doing things so I want to learn as much as possible to make the transition a bit more comfortable Thanks to all the great ideas and help from you guys and gals
I’ve run into only one house where I had to remove the screens from the outside. When I have I use a screen clip just to be safe. For exterior only jobs I make sure I have access to remove the screens from the inside or have the homeowner remove them before the clean.
Thats what I was thinking If you are forced and have to do ladder work just to get to the screens, you should now charge for that correct?
If you are climbing the ladder to remove the screen, just clean the window while up there and save the WFP for the next job.
My pricing is not affected by my method. They are all priced to be laddered and when I use the WFP I benefit with extra dollars in my pocket through less labor cost.
If I have to do it it’s extra on an exterior only. Exterior only means I shouldn’t have to go inside!
Exactly. If they dont want to lift a finger to have that done before I start the job, they Will get charged for it. Thanks for everything You guys are awsome
Lift a finger? I thought WE were the service professionals…
I have one monthly house I do the outs on. In the nicer weather the screens are on. I send Mrs Squeegee inside to remove the screens while I start the outs. She follows and replaces the screens after I’m done w/ the window. I gave the customer the option of them removing them or us and the price difference and they chose to have us do it.
You ought to build a little contraption that holds the screen while you are up there… On my belt I have a small chain that holds a Husky spring clip see attachment.
This thing comes in hand when I am climbing a ladder in a tight spot and can’t afford to hold onto the screen with a hand.
I would take a picture of my workbelt, but I’m in my underwear and the car is out in the cold…
Coming from a guy who sells wfp, that says alot. I’m impressed your honesty Shawn.
I was reading all of these posts and was hesitant to say that he ought to just hand clean these houses and save the wfp for 3 story work, or large 2 story homes that have few if any screens on the exterior.
I only use my wfp when the conditions tell me I need too. Here are some of my “conditions”…
- Lots of divided or cutup windows
- Screens located on inside
- Anything my 20’ extension with stabilizer won’t comfortably reach
And if they are bad and haven’t been done in a while, we will dial them in with a scrub pad or scraper on a pole then finish with a wpf wash and rinse…
Other than that, a big majority of our cleans are nose to glass.
For my company, the wfp is nothing more than just a tool that we occasionally pull out. Granted it is probably one of our best tools, but it is just that, an extra tool.
