Bidding a school

Dang I cant upload the courtyard. I took a pano of the court yard and it is to big of a file.

Now the best that I can give you guys is above the entrance on the side where there is a lot of little windows that makes the large window. There is multiples of those window sets. The ledges are flat on the exterior so it should be simple. As simple as it gets. I have to go off his count now. He was very honest and nice. My buddy knows him. So I hope he was honest. It is a half hour drive and need an appointment to get in. As to the back side maybe 20 windows that is where all the kitchen receiving is and so on. The thing is. I dont want him to know I know the last company charged 5,000. My buddies mom works high up in the office and I dont want them knowing she told us.

Hey, put the pic in Power Point. Scale it down and save it as a JPG. Or, cut pic in two halves in Power Point, save as JPGā€™s and upload. Or try to shrink pic on something I know nothing about that you have. Cā€™mon, you can do it. Thanks for the like. Feelinā€™ better? :slightly_smiling_face:

What if they need scrubbing?

Ok this is the inside of the courtyard. Thank goodness I could just re email it to myself. Not the best with computers lol. Im 28 and still suck at technology. This is the first computer I ever bought for myself and that was a month ago lol. But beside that. I am still terrified but I am excited about the possibility of doing this job. It could def put me on the map. This area is prob the most complicated of the school.

so now lets say I get this school. Now I need a WFP. Do I do a RO system. What should I get system and pole wise? I have no clue on WFP. I have not researched much into them. I will prob have a $2,000 budget. How much DI tanks will I need? Can you refill them yourself? I am not jumping the gun but I would like to start my researching now.

https://windowcleaner.com/waterfed-poles/tds/

That will tell you the TDS for your area.
If less than 100 then DI,
If greater than 100, then RO + DI.

There is a lot of information on pure water systems right here at windowcleaner.com
Just Check out the links from the main page, and follow the guides through.

If he thought the last price was high, then I still feel you need to come in a little lower to get this (If he thought the last price was too high, then you know 5k or more will turn him off), and pricing it per pane does not disclose that you were aware of the old price, After seeing the photos, I still feel that $4 per = $4700 would be a sweet gig. Going lower than 5k is not a bad thing, and still better than doing free work for experience (itā€™s for da kids man!). Do what you want, but with a helper, you should be fine.

As far as the roof goes, it looks like a flat roof, so that should not be a problem
.
Did you notice all the water hook up locations? (important for calculating hose needed)

I am not trying to argue about your capabilities, because I do not doubt your abilities. However, he has stated that he has never used a WFP before, and that he is new to the profession in general. Also, he has the nervous jitters about taking on a big job being inexperienced. Therefore, I think it is safe to say that his speed will be much slower than a seasoned veteran like yourself. With that said, I doubt that he would be able to do this in a weekend even with a helper, if he is indeed trying to be thorough and do a quality job for the school, and his community,

Again, I am a window cleaning noob too, and not trying to argue or convince anyone to follow my advice, just offering my perspective about this opportunity and his particular situation.

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Water is at 306 oh my. I guess its RO and DI. I guess I didnt think about a category for waterfed. I will look it up. I did look for water hook ups. They are pretty frequent. If I get the job I will def go back and look more into details. The water is very hard. some windows are covered with hard water stain from the sprinkler. I think 4,700 would be great for my first big job. Plus buys my water fed pole. Work pays for my equipment from now on lol. Bucket bob where you from. I like your knowledge for a new guy

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so I typed in my home town zip and it says my water is a zero here. That cant be true is it? The town 30 min away with the school is at 306.

Yes, @Bucket-Bob sounds very knowledgeable for a new guy.

Think he does his homework, very well prepared, off to a great start

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Bid is sent. 4700 for the exterior windows. With a optional add on of rust removal at 5.00 a stain. Small stains and lots of them. Very spread out around the courtyard. Prob could get a extra couple hundred from that if they bite.

Everything I know about Window Cleaning I learned from you guys here, and I am still learning.
The videos put up on YouTube help a great deal too, like Lukeā€™s, Trad-Manā€™s, and the other popular gurus. I am soaking this stuff up like a sponge, because I am hooked already. My posts are just saying what I would do hypothetically, so I can see how the pros react and get an idea of whether I am on the right track, or not. Nice to hear some reinforcing comments now and then, so thanks!

Go with the higher number.A zero simply means there is currently no data for that zip.

Good luck. I sincerely hope that this works out for you. Iā€™m sure youā€™ll keep us posted on the progress. :slight_smile:

You will need to increase that budget.

Bare bones, you will need a RO/DI (about 2K), a pole that will reach 3 stories (and I would recommend one you can add extensions to), WFP hose (a few hundred feet), and a supply hose (I like flexzilla hose), depending on water pressure, maybe even a pump (a wayne PC4 works fine) .

@cruzzer3
For now, just get a good high quality carbon fiber pole. You should be able to rent some DI tanks for a couple hundred to get the job done.

Do a search for water treatment ā€œyour cityā€ and look for the outfits listed UNDERNEATH culligan. If nobody else rents them out THEN go to culligan. They are the most expensive by far. Iā€™d wait on the system until I had much more wfp work. You definitely need the pole(s).

Before you do this job; try to get someone from the forum who works nearby let you work for free for a day. Thats the only way to really bust your cherry.

The only windows that look like they could be an issue is the ones with all the multiple frames you know kinda like cut ups on steriods.

Those are probably going to spot up pretty bad even if you give it some drip time.

Just make sure to bring a couple cans of spray way and some microfibers on a doodlebug, heck, some blue towels in a fixiclamp works better in my opinionā€¦to do touch ups when its all dried up.

(if you donā€™t know what that is lemme knowā€¦if I donā€™t see you asked Iā€™m sure someone can tell ya super simple method for getting LIGHT spotting off the glass without having to do it all over again.

Iā€™d still have 2 men on it for a two day completion. One man, 3 days maybe if he banged it out.

It would help if you know the TDS for the school, or if the irrigation system uses reclaimed water? If it doesā€¦your going to have to either buy some carbon blocks for pre filters or go ahead and just buy that RO unit.

If its using reclaimed water and you got brand new resin, you still only got maybe 10 hours before those tanks are toast.

Also, if the parking lot has solar panels as car portsā€¦hit em up for solar panel cleaning!
They will be getting them doneā€¦easy money right there.

Iā€™d bid it 2 men at 8 hours per day for 2 days
So labor, tax, wcā€¦my math looks like:

77$x 16 hours=$1232
Thats my overhead.

1232x2= $2464 is my price at 2 days

Come on, anyone? Am I wrong?

Take a look at those pictures againā€¦man thereā€™s no way theres 1200 windows. Even if it is; I will never understand why people count windows for commercial buildings. (wait, are you guys all counting the cut ups like cut ups?)

Who cares how many panes or windows or whatever. How do you factor in set up time? Thats free? What about qc at the end? What about rolling all the tools up?

Iā€™m not saying my way is the right way, just saying Iā€™ve never heard of anyone counting windows on a job walk, especially for multi buildingsā€¦Iā€™d be there all day long counting.

All Iā€™m saying is I know how long it would take to clean.

For instance.

The very first photo with the front of the school with the clock in it. Not counting set up time, but from turning on the water, ready to climb my ladder to walk that roof, and finishing up the bottoms, 2 hours by myselfā€¦AND Iā€™d get made fun of because it took so long. Maybe three hours if those cut ups start acting stupid.

But the sides of the building and the courtyard donā€™t have those cut ups, not like the second floor where the clock is.

@cruzzer3 Iā€™ve been wrong before, sure, but ask @Chris, or better yet, someone whos worked with me on many sites before like @CAS Brian, I know youā€™re gonna crack wise on me, but tell the truth, am I steering this guy wrong?

Lol low baller :joy::wink: Cali has messed with your mind itā€™s crazy but in other places people pay $ for work.

I also agree why does everyone get so technical on the window type on commercial, It seems to me to that many of commentators may not have much experience with commercial work just lots of opinions.

Tory my buddy in OKC who has that town on lock down probably be at your price and they would bust it out in 2 days
Tory is right your gonna do that job 2-3 days and if they want to pay 5k let them pay you 5k.

One question is it really called Hicksville?

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I still count windows on commercial.

My thought behind it is to have a system that anyone can use to bid. For me its all in the formula.

I like options, if I sell company its turnkey, if I hire non experienced sales guy or if I need an employee to stop and bid something he just counts windows and I add the formula for price. I dont want employees to know what the job pays, they only see the price and not the behind the scenes costs which also is contributed to how much money you make.

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ā€œCruzzerā€, Go to WCR. If you start looking at Tanks etc. somewhere it will ask you to put in your zip code and it will tell you the TDS in your area. It will then tell you the system you need. I was at 75 TDS with frequent use. It gave me a total package system (Xero Pure) for $1,100ā€¦pole and all. Also, when you go to WCR, they want to chat with you. I have chatted long with these folks, asking lots of questions. Anywho, RO, is a water softener. RO/DI is for very hard water. I needed RO only. Who knew? Thatā€™s what their TDS system and chatting arrived at. I was told I donā€™t need RO/DI, just RO. Also, a plumber told me for a DI system, it takes five gallons of water to make one gallon of DI water, hence, water waste. Your are going to school. Look up RO (Reverse Osmosis) and DI (De- Ionization). Read up on it. Look at systems on WCR. Enter your zip code and look at the recommended system. Chat with the chat feature. Heck, call them on the phone and talk to a real human. They will assess your real needs. Of course theses guys will help, but chat is available always.

weā€™ve done a couple schools where we are. We charged per window around $4. This was before we got our WFP, we just used ladders and poles where we could. We only had a three man crew and 1 school took us about 3 days. So I donā€™t think 16 hours is a good estimate but definitely the $4 a window is good. If they thought $5000 was to much last year go off that too and see what you can do for them!

Where would you be at price wise brian?