What do you call a window

:confused::smiley:
We all use some form of formular we work through. I use the word pain as apposed to window. I have as an example 2 houses about the same size and age that have about the same amount of glass but one takes about 4 times as long as the other. The houses in the photos are not the 2 I’m talking about but they show the differences we can come across. The windows with the small squares are one pain with alluminum striping glued to the glass on the inside and outside. these are alot of work to get clean as there are no rubbers and therefore are almost impossible to do to a high standard without alot of ragging off on the inside. The brick house has about 500 pains.
How dose your formula work on this :rolleyes:? I use my formula and then tend to step back and think how much time will it take and do the two amounts work out about the same.
Before I get a hard time for it I know I shouldn’t be on the roof. I don’t get up there anymore (Once onlY). I can do it within reason from the ground.

M

I charge by the pane, any piece of glass surrounded by some sort of frame. Some windows may have 1 pane, some may have 20 panes.

I charge by the pane side. For my purpose each window pane has an exterior and interior surface so a double hung window would be a pane count of 4 for my bidding purposes.

A pane and a window are different. A pane(s) is just part of the window. As Micah said " you can have 1 pane or 20 panes of glass. The definition of the word “pane” is debatable. Clearly shown by Micah and Tony. Taking Tony’s example of a double hung window, I would say it had 2 panes of glass or if the top sash had 6 cut ups/frenchies, I would say it had 7 panes.
Generally, I charge per pane but will also factor in time it takes as well.

Thats my definition as well. Inside and out = 2 pains. So the house in the photo above has 500 pains outside and 500 inside for a total of 1000.

It only really matters for bidding purposes. I use a modified form of Jim Willingham’s factor bidding. He separated interior and exterior panes on his sheet so I do as well.

My work time is worth a buck a minute. 2 hours=$120.00. 3 hours $180.00 and so on. If you are a good with estimating the time it takes, then this is just another way to figure bids and not come out too bad.
“theglassmachine”

+1 . Great pics.

EXACTLY! That’s how I do it.

Toronto Window Cleaning ~ Beautiful View Free Estimate Form

And like Tony, I say a dh window has 4 pane sides.

My pane price is pretty consistent except for Frenchies.

Panes or windows, I generally care more about how long I think it will take and bid accordingly.

I take time into consideration too. In many cases I’ll take time into consideration and price my pane count to reflect my hourly target.

The reason I do this is because it’s a lot easier for a customer to comprehend your charging them 5 dollars a pane compared to charging them 125.00 an hour.

So on all of my estimates I give a pane count and a price per pane.

IMO, a pane count is the most accurate way of sizing up the job, both on what to charge and how long it will take.

If a customer calls up an tells me they have 20 windows, I still don’t have the whole picture. Could be 1 pane per window, could be 5.

Now if a customer tells me they have 40 window panes, I know there are 40 panes of glass to scrub, 40 panes of glass to squeegee and 40 panes of glass to detail (double this for in/out). It’s easy to determine how long it will take without even seeing the house. The only time I’ve been off by this method is when the customer wasn’t honest with the pane count or they down played how dirty they were. Hasn’t happened often though.

But hey, whatever has worked for any of you, all the power to ya! :slight_smile:

Sorry for reviving a really old thread, but I want to understand this…

If a house has 32 double-hung windows, that’s 64 pieces of glass surrounded by a frame. If you’re doing inside and out, that’s 128 “sides”.

Are you charging $10 per “window”, $5.00 per pane, or $2.50 per side?

It all comes out the same - $320.00 for the job, but I’m trying to understand how everyone approaches this.

Thanks.

In order to know how long it will take, you have to know how long it takes to do each window.

I don’t think most people know that.

You’ll find that it’s typically a personal preference, though we should speak the same language to understand each other.

For residential, most consider their pricing structure by the window (service is typically all windows inside and out.)

For commercial, by the side (route work is most typically outside-only.)

Don’t mean to hijack but…

That middle pic where you are standing on the roof with a wfp, could you not have done that from the ground?

I’m asking (what may be a stupid question) because that’s the way I used to clean windows the traditional way but I just oreder a pure water set up with pole with the hope of eliminating most ladder work like that. If it works, I might get back into windows heavy again but when I watch most of these videos with wfp the brush is always stuck 90degrees to the pole so in order to get in all the corners you have to be right under the window. Where they do show them cleaning windows off to the side the brush doesn’t look like it’s doing an acceptable job… unless the window was really clean to start out with.

They need a wfp goose neck like this Ettore pro plus super system tbar 22 inch

Okay…next question after “What do you call a window?” is:

What are you responsible for cleaning?

Imagine an all brick home. There’s a lot of “stuff” in the opening in the brick where the light comes in…sills, frames, etc. So, are you cleaning EVERYTHING that isn’t brick? Or are you focused on cleaning glass and leaving everything else to the pressure washing guy?

I think you’ll find this varies from company to company. Our basic service is all sides of the glass, dry brush and wet wipe the sills, and clean the screens w/ Screen Magic. (if the screens are horrible I suggest a deep screen cleaning for an additional fee) I also dry brush the frames.