£720 lighter ;)

BringTheRain said:
LOL - I got/get competition all the time. Beer money for the summer usually.

But one lad stuck it out and made it and hats off to the guy!

TBH not dissing up norf. But window cleaning is so different from north to south.

I am 45 miles north of London, bedfordshire. And i would not do a house for less than £10 really.

My friend cleans in chesterfield, which is close to you??? And he has 4 bed detatched houses for £5!

But he doesnt wipe sills, misses windows, doesn't do doors, doesnt edge etc. He can do 4 an hour which is £20 ish an hour. For me same method as him (traditional) I would struggle todo 2 but i would charge £15 each.

Window cleaning is very weird, seems to be the higher you go up the uk the cheaper it is BUT the quality drops off as well!!!!
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Damn we are been ripped off at work then! We are up north and we have 2 double windows ground plus 3 single and 4 double windows on the first floor and the gut with the pole charges £100 per month for one visit to clean! :eek:
 
Greebo said:
Damn we are been ripped off at work then! We are up north and we have 2 double windows ground plus 3 single and 4 double windows on the first floor and the gut with the pole charges £100 per month for one visit to clean! :eek:
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WFP is done on time tbh. You cannot do it by windows. As every window is easy as long as you can see it.

Rule of thumb is £40-£60 per hour.

SO if he works for less than 2 hours, you are being ripped off!
 
BringTheRain said:
Magic, can you remember how many times he did your house with the pole?

No offence taken, some people don't like the system. Other customers love it and would never go back to traditional. When my dad converted to pole system he got about 6 complaints out of 400+ customers. But it wasn't the system at fault.

Badly fitted seals, missing seals, alu frames, badly kept wooden framed windows etc etc was the problem.
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Oh a good year or so, it was just some windows seemed to have dry water spots on them.

I now have to do my own now as my property and the way it is built, makes it very hard for someone to gain access to the back.

Which is another reason why I dont have a window cleaner now too.
 
BringTheRain said:
WFP is done on time tbh. You cannot do it by windows. As every window is easy as long as you can see it.

Rule of thumb is £40-£60 per hour.

SO if he works for less than 2 hours, you are being ripped off!
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30 mins max on site and thats been generous. It's an office building on an indiustrial estate and easier than a house cause no obstacles and windows only on 2 sides of the building
 
Magic_x_uk said:
Oh a good year or so, it was just some windows seemed to have dry water spots on them.

I now have to do my own now as my property and the way it is built, makes it very hard for someone to gain access to the back.

Which is another reason why I dont have a window cleaner now too.
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A year christ, bad cleaner bud.

I check my windows before starting the next time round if you get me. And I haven't seen a spot in months (spotting)

To get streaks he is not cleaning the frames or edges. It's a shame, as people like that give this system a bad name.

I spent 1 min cleaning 6 windows and my porch tonight. Didn't even rinse properly and its 100% perfect. That's how good it should be!
 
Greebo said:
30 mins max on site and thats been generous. It's an office building on an indiustrial estate and easier than a house cause no obstacles and windows only on 2 sides of the building
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WOW he is charging more as its commercial.

I do a baptist church for £135 and it takes me 4 hours.

This church looks like it's is made of glass.

Easily 100 windows just on the front!

But tbh, if you get away with it and the customer has a smile then fair enough.

I picked up a customer today for £60, i was going to quote £30. She said i paid £60 last time and i dont want to pay more. So i matched it! But when i left her house, she gave me a £10 tip (very rare except for xmas time) as she said they have never looked that clean before :D
 
I have a window round but its more or a part time thing. I only have about 90 odd customers but im really slack with it as im very busy with my IT and mobile repair business. I do use a triple and work alone, i only have about 3 houses that i need to use the triple so most of the time i keep the last section off.

This pole system does quite interest me but will all the setting up it looks quite time consuming. I also worry about the trailing hose as i could see some old prat tripping over it and suing me.

Also I take it you only use the pole for the first floor of a house and do the conventional method on the ground floor?
 
HAz said:
I have a window round but its more or a part time thing. I only have about 90 odd customers but im really slack with it as im very busy with my IT and mobile repair business. I do use a triple and work alone, i only have about 3 houses that i need to use the triple so most of the time i keep the last section off.

This pole system does quite interest me but will all the setting up it looks quite time consuming. I also worry about the trailing hose as i could see some old prat tripping over it and suing me.

Also I take it you only use the pole for the first floor of a house and do the conventional method on the ground floor?
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Setting up and trailing hoses = van mounted system. WHICH i do have BUT i work from a trolley system now. I fill up my trolley at the back of the van (30secs) then wheel it of and go cleaning. So trolley is about 5 meters from me at all time.

No trailing hoses other foot paths.

3 sections :eek: I could only just lift them lol.

TBH it would be easier for you! but if it's only part time maybe stick to traditional. As going from Trad to WFP takes a year bud :)
 
Meh, thought you were talking about some sort of revolutionary laser-ignition Zippo..

I use those magnetic window blocks you can get for my 2nd storey windows...
 
So you run the water through an RO filter at home then? At 400l a day that must cost a fair bit.
 
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About 6 months ago I looked at setting myself up to do my own windows using a pure water system, I could also use the water to wash my car however I got a bit bogged down with all the finer details and I left it.
This thread has resurrected my interest in it, so would you be able to guide me in the right direction regarding setting a system up?

I'm not on a water meter so that isn't a problem, ideally I'd like to set the system up in my garage and use that as a base to do my full house so just a long hose from my garage.
I've seen this setup on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....768106&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2586wt_922, do you think this would be suitable?
I believe I'll also need a water tank to hold the water and would I need a a pump to pump it from the water tank down the pole?
Of course then I'd also need the hose, pole and brushes etc.

If I can do it for maybe £200 - £250 I think it would be a worthwhile investment, if you can offer me any advice I'd really appreciate it. I don't have a window cleaner so as you can imagine they are desperately ready for a clean :)
 
Chipperhead fair play bud!

Right what i will do is keep it really simple and then if you want to go ahead i can point you in the right direction and explain in more detail :)

The link you have posted is correct that is an RO unit used to produce "pure water"

Problem is that machine will produce 300L in 24 hours. And unless you plan on washing your house 15 times in one go. Totally overkill!

You should be looking at NON boosted r/o systems the slower the water is made, the better TDS you will get.

You NEED to polish pure water, that costs about £100 to get set up, then around £60 every month! BUT if i you buy the RO system i link to it, it will produce water at around 10ppm. for your own house, perfect!! You would get little to no spotting.

SO for water producing

R/O system £60 - water tank would be £100 (scrap that) Get a water butt! SO £80 and you can produce water and store at home. Water is produced very slowly. SO you would switch on at 8am and switch off at 6pm easily enough to wash your house 10 times.

Right so water is sorted, next you need a pole. The cheapest pole ready made for wfp is around the £100 mark. (scrap that) I can show you a guide on making a wfp for £30 and it will last years. The pole comes from B&Q :D

The best thing you can buy is a window cleaning backpack. As you need some way of pumping the water at a steady rate. They are around the £140 mark BUT i can direct you to cheaper ones for say £70 - Better still i will tell you what to look for and you can get a 2nd hand one.

Next is brush head (easy i have loads)
Microbore hose (easy i have loads)

Thats about it.

Water = £60 for machine plus £20 for water butt £80
Pole = £30
pump/storage for water when cleaning £70
Brush,hose and misc bits £10 (postage)

So all in all you should get change out of £200
 
Firstly thanks very much for taking the time out and giving me this info :)

What you have wrote sounds spot on and my dad was interested in doing his windows so using the backpack method like you have suggested I would be able to take it to his house and use it there.

I already have a telescopic pole so maybe that would be suitable? It's not particularly light but for the occasional use I need it maybe fine.

Of course any bits I got from you I would be more than happy to chuck you some cash as well as postage.
 
Well as you not doing it as a business pole weight wont come into it. You could buy a cheap fibreglass pole for peanuts. Yes it's heavy but people use em for 7 HR days.

Go onto B&Q and search for Harris decorating poles. A couple of mates use them. Depending on your house. Ie height. You ideally need an 18ft pole giving you 23ft reach. That will clean most first story houses Inc windows set back and over cons roofs.

You could easily get setup for £250 £200 is more of a challenge but do able.

What you would do if you intended to clean other people windows is. Make the water into a water butt and then transfer to the 25l plastic containers that you see at hand car wash places. They are like £5 new

25L would do me a 4 or 5 bed detached house. Your first time you would use maybe 50 L on a house.

It takes 6 cleans to get the windows perfect. But you could clean 4 times in a month. Then after that if you stick to every 5 weeks. They will always be spotless.

Where are you based?
 
I came here wondering which clown would pay £720 for a lighter, read the OP and wondered which lighters weigh 720g then watched the video
 
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