I honestly would love to see an OSHA law that in order to do construction clean up of any kind on new construction including houses and commercial you must be licensed and certified for construction clean up and must renew every year or three. There should be a process that makes it illegal and the builder will be fined for hiring someone including employees that aren’t nationally certified and up to date and it should cost $300 dollars. This would help ensure that not just any old Bucket Juan or Bucket Bum can show up and scratch new construction windows for $1.00 per pane.
In order to be certified they should learn about F.D. and the different types of glass and how to clean it properly and identify potential issues with the glass so that it can be replaced by the manufacturer etc. They should have to learn about the different types of chemicals such as a wetting agent or an oil based cleanser or cement remover. Learn pay and then be certified.
Creating new laws will do nothing but raise the cost of doing business for the window cleaning companies, which will cause them to raise their prices, which will cause the contractors to raise their prices. More and more litigation is killing small businesses and in turn spoils the whole economy.
New laws and licenses will not stop the contractors from hiring the bucket bobs, they will still exist! Education is what WILL make the change you want to see, educate the contractors on why they should hire a real professional rather than bucket bob and you will be successful.
The problem I see is most contractors don’t give a hoot about quality or anything like that. They know glass gets scratched but they don’t care; they’d just as soon have a bum scratch a few windows and after he finishes say he can’t pay because he messed up a couple windows. Or he will just hire the cheapest construction clean up price he can find and take the chance (which could leave the unsuspecting homeowner with ruined glass that they might not see for many months a year or more).
I charge 3-5 $ per pane on construction clean up and I try to educate the contractors and they just look at me like I’m insane for trying to get that much. I don’t get any construction clean accounts even losing bids to people I know are scratching glass because they don’t have any knowledge. I have an entire page on my website dedicated to educating folks on the problems with New Construction. Construction | New | Home | Clean Up | Window Cleaning,Window Cleaners,Cleaning Service | Saint George, UT
I can understand your frustration, that gets old. However lets be honest here, if a contractor builds a house with “contractor” grade fixtures, faucets and particle trim I wouldn’t put in my house, why would they care about a good quality window cleaning. What we are seeing is the low balling contractors who are trying to cut every subs quote will also not care when it’s finally window cleaning time. And if your only bidding 3-5 for construction cleanup and still losing bids to low ballers, personally I would avoid them 100%. Let them have there glass all scratched up trying to save a couple bucks.
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So tell us what is it that makes you someone who should be certified? I would like to know what makes you a better post construction window cleaner than Juan? Do you have employees? Will you do all of the post construction work if you can’t find employees that can be certified like yourself?
So there are apparently laws in CA that ensure that construction clean up companies have a contractors license. This does not mean that they can not sub out the windows to anybody they want (including illegals and other forms of inexperienced cheap labor). Or does it, I don’t know its irrelevant because it isn’t a national requirement.
I would like to see a mandate requiring anyone touching a new piece of glass be educated and tested and go through a form of certification for each hire or WC. I can see there are pros and cons to everything I think the pros would be no more jobs being subbed out to cheap labor. No more scratched glass. Less fabricating debris. More manufacturer responsibility, more work for the window cleaners etc. (Regarding New Construction ONLY)
I don’t think some of you get what I’m saying especially with a reply like this so let me give you a similar analogy.
A phlebotomist can draw blood and perform an I.V. but isn’t certified to handle a procedure like say an epidural so the certified Anesthesiologist must perform the task. If some hospital wanted their “bottom rung guys” like a phlebotomist to perform an epidural on your wife giving birth they would lose their license. So I’m saying we should all become Anesthesiologists in window cleaning so that phlebotomists can’t give epidurals anymore.
If it was regulated the construction crew would take needed precautions to avoid massive amounts of paint, stucco, and acetone left to dry on window glass so the Window Cleaner wouldn’t be held responsible for ungodly amounts of clean up. Regulations would also demand roof anchors in every construction for safety. But those things are not in place. Professionalism on every level would be nice?
You want to create a regulation based on the fact you are losing work to people who are doing something for less money than you would? Good luck trying to lobby a member of congress on those grounds.
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Your “analogy” sounds like a Union set-up. I know an owner of a lumber store locally. Him and his brother went to the docks in California to bid on and pick up some exotic woods. The place was painted up with stripes on the loading dock floor. One union worker could only move the cart so far up to the stripes and it would sit there until the next union worker could get to it and move it to the next stripe. It was frustrating and a waste of everyones time to watch this unfold. The two contractors I work with actually do expect quality work out of the crews they hire. Sometimes, unfortunately, you get what you get and try to avoid them next time. Learn your craft and do it the best that you can do for a price that feeds and houses you. The lesser quality guys die off sooner or later.
No, window cleaners just don’t have deep enough pockets to create a special interest group to make those kind of laws. The suppliers and the contractors are making billions more than we are so they have all the cards. Whether it’s a scratched window or not it’s still just a window to a good majority of those guys. Now if it is a custom home builder, they’re going to be careful about who does their windows or they’ll learn the hard way.
Thank you… Okay sometimes I get so upset by the responses on here but I can’t see the body language or hear the tones at which they are being projected. But thank you for being more clear and specific to what your point is.
In this case I agree with you. It is much better to go for the gold customers and let the riff raff greedy contractors get the cheap labor they pay for. I don’t foresee something like this actually happening especially since not one person has outspokenly agreed with my idea or even tried to expound it into their own idea. But if there was a way that it could happen to benefit the whole organization of window cleaners I would be on board 100%.
A lot of WC’s on this forum boast that they make 1,000+ per day so what is $500 bucks but pocket change.
What would happen if they made a law requiring every window cleaner cleaning new construction to pay $500 dollars every 3 years for a certificate. The certificate would train window cleaners to look for FD, and if they detect it they are obligated to make note for the contractor who then is required to get the window/s replaced by the manufacturer.
Any contractor found using a WC without this certificate on a new construction gets fined $5,000. And its an individual certificate so the contractor can't just buy one and certify his whole crew.
No more bucket bums doing construction clean up. No more FD. And all the guys that make double what I make gotta spend a little pocket change for a certificate if they even offer construction clean.
P.S. $500 to me is far from pocket change but I would gladly spend it if I had to do new construction clean. It would just mean that I could get jobs that most can’t even touch.
