There are not many waterfed poles in my area, I may be the only one. We have a ton of townhouses that are three stories high that the windows are absolutely filthy, one of them is my aunt who I cleaned for free. She said she has never had anyone offer to clean her windows, that she had called a company and they wouldn’t do it since the third floor would require a 32 foot ladder. Anyways I have priced it at 175$ for exterior window cleaning, which is pretty high for a 20 pane or less exterior property. I am charging more based off the fact that no one seems to want to clean these and my expensive machine is able to take it on easily (investing in this unreal tool is paying off) . Has anyone done this before? Does anyone else increase the price based on height or target areas where most window cleaners would walk away from? I think I may have found a unique market for myself, three storie or even four stories where ladder work just isn’t going to cut it. Looking to hear back from you.
Also the Tucker over the top rinse bar is a game changer… Wow.
Our crews use 32’ pretty much daily but I know we have handfuls of competitors who
-won’t use a 32
-won’t clean gutters
-won’t hire
We do not charge based on stories, but read on here plenty who do. Factor bidding I have heard some call it.
We just use our per pane price to establish rough price, from there overall use of days time. So if you 20 window gig took 1/4 of your day with driving, pack up, etc we’d round it to 1/4 of our daily goal.
Yes you should charge more for higher windows because it takes longer with a wfp. I use the factor bidding and it takes twice as long to do 3rd floor as 1st floor so I charge double for 3rd floor. I also consider trees and bushes and landscaping that would get in the way. I use Responsibid and all these can be set up for automatic pricing in the backend of the software. Responsibid
People that are scared of a 32’ ladder, but are window washers… Hahaha, that gives me a chuckle. 3rd floor I add extra cost to, but I charge the same for first and second, unless like mentioned above, there is some extreme landscaping or steep hillside involved, then I charge a “difficulty and danger” fee.
I just did eight 3 storey condos with my wfp, each one with about 30 panes of glass total on the second and third floors. Small to medium sized panes. Charged an average of $5 per pane, up from my regular $4.5. Finished the job in 4 hours, $1200. Every tenant was ecstatic they only had to pay $150. Mind you I had all the tenants park on the street so I had ease of access to every unit. So at 20 panes even if you can get $100 per townhouse you would do great, if you can get $175 even better. Considering they are having a tough time getting a window cleaner to do it, I would start at the higher end of that price for a bid. Ive been thinking of getting the rinse bar, what do you like so much about it? I do hate rinsing with the brush off the glass at 3 and especially 4 stories!
Thanks for the responses guys! Yeah I’m going to stick to my guns on this one and hang tight at 175 I put together a one page pamphlet showing me with my waterfed pole cleaning one of there units… There is a call to action… A price… And a picture of me cleaning and a small blurb explain wfp. I am going out this Saturday!
The Tucker rinse bar for me just seems to get more flow… Like a tidal wave of water I guess. I’m not very good at aiming right now I am new to wfp so the tidal wave approach with the rinse bar seems to work for me, very clear flow in the area where it comes out if that makes sense. Helps me remember and see where I am washing.
I love the rise bar because it rinsed well on hydrophobic and philic, but you do want the swivel with it. The swivel makes it easier to be accurate on your rinse and helps avoid drips. I am new to wfp and using it made me much faster on my rinse and eliminated about 95% of my mistakes on my rinse. Biggest beef is the scratch issues, but there is a good diy fix thread for that, and per chris the second gen bar is set back more from edge to help prevent scratches.
I didnt even know there was a swivel… I am very new! I think I am getting drips…whatever that means ( can only assume there is water dripping down on to the pane once I have rinsed) but I am getting these driplet stains but they aren’t at the top of the window where you would think a driplet would hit first. Very hard to figure out what I am doing wrong, at least the streaks aren’t there anymore but I am definitely seeing some little dried dirt drops (almost look like hard water stains but come right off with a huck towel) And yes my TDS is saying 0! Maybe I need some tips on how to prevent this? Thought the extra rinse power from the tucker rinse bar would save me, maybe it is me and not my tools ;(((
Yeah I work for Tucker ya plug… Acctually out of Ottawa Canada and ordered it from Mark at beautiful view… Can I say that or am I then a worker for beutiful view? I only mentioned the over the top rinse bar after my massive post regarding the townhouses I am doing… You sound like a window licker not a window cleaner when you make comments like that. Get back to work and contribute to the forum instead of being a little troll. So long.
Not sure where you are located but $175 seems average. If you’re in such a unique market I think you should be able to get much more.
WFP has definitely greatly increased our efficiency and made it possible to do jobs that were once risky with tall ladders more easily.
We still use ladders almost daily but not for every window now.
I’ve tried rinse bars in the past but still prefer my 4 pencil jet set up. I feel it gives a more precise rinse. I’ve never had issues rinsing hydrophobic glass with the 4 jets.
Yeah I don’t really use the rinse bar anymore… It is kind of garbage but I have it mounted on my four new four pencil jet brush… Four pencil is definetly my new favourite. Still have trouble with hydrophobic glass… Do you have any tips? I am currently just doing 20-25 passes it sucks
Not sure what kind of trouble you’re having. If you just think it’s just slow goings it’s definitely not going to be as fast as rinsing hydrophilic glass.
I just try to stay methodical about my rinsing and slightly twist my wrist back and forth, using a side to side sweeping motion while working my way down the glass. If it’s large plates of glass I’ll work in sections using the same technique.
