Wagtail/liquidator plus storefront equals money?

So when I did store front years ago they didn’t have the wagtail, or it wasn’t popular and has gone through a lot of improvements and now we have the liquidator but they didn’t have them back then and I have since dropped storefront or retail. My question, for those who do storefront or retail and use the wagtail or liquidator, do you find that it cuts your time significantly enough to make good money on store front? Just as good as residential or larger commercial jobs?

My wagtail is essential. I can wet the whole window and not have too worry about drips at the top. Cut right, cut left, fan horizontally twice, lean the pole, grab my hand tool. Barely detail sides, wipe the bottom and scrim Any lettering. I love it. I laugh that I first did all these stores with a junk home depot 14 inch unger. The pole I bought when I started is still going strong though. Residential is still where the money really is though. Don’t have to Chase 200 bucks around town all day.

That’s a loaded question. It’s late, I’ve a lot to say on your question. I will respond tomorrow once I get back in or before we head out in the morning.

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I like my wagtail, but find it difficult to close out on taller sills. The ‘swivel chunk’ makes the last half inch tricky unless I stick the butt in the air. Maybe the liquidator has addressed this. I like the wagtail for lower uppers (?), and as a hand tool. I still prefer my Sorbo for big, tall pole work on regular accounts.

honestly IMO I don’t like wagtail period, liquidator I use mostly on resi commercial and store front glass is normally larger so I always use larger channels 22-30" and I always prefer wide body for anything over 18", I also find I WAY more efficient and faster to work 2 handed rather than to use the flippy pads to wet up when you can reach it.

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I would agree I’m probably faster with regular washer and squeegee with large channels on the outside. That said on the inside where there tends to be less access to Windows and you can’t use as much water the swivel squeegee s and flip pads can have an advantage at times. I’m not sure if it’s enough to make a difference though. Hence the question.

Do you use the same on the inside Steve?

I do insides are far quicker especially 2 handed I have a domino’s I do weekly the insides take me about half the time as then outsides do as I am using both hands, external is beach front so salty and sandy, cant be fast with those conditions.

Hmmm where have I herd that before
I’m with you 22"-30" tools (wide body) on storefronts period .
More than Half your time with storefronts is with tools in hand , so a wagtail is useless. Coukd it be good in some situations sure , but if your good with a stick no need for detailing , so how would it be faster is my question?

To answer your question it’s not going to be significant from one to the other.
If you compare one that is good with both tools IMO… am I good with both no , so my opinion is bias.

For most people, whatever your go-to tool is will be the one you make money with. Whatever skills I have, I developed from watching youtube videos and practicing / adapting what I watched to fit my situation. I have seen guys kick ass with straight pulls, fanning, fixed blade squeegees, 0-degree squeegees, wagtails, etc. I have also seen guys with the same equipment who probably weren’t making more than $12 an hour. If you hustle and work on eliminating wasted movement, learn to use the equipment in your arsenal, you can make money.

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@whatapane

We do bit of store front glass. :wink:

The answer to that question is ‘NO’ both the tools have their setbacks or downfalls as whole tool (big time), I thought the new excelerator would be the answer, but its not (thats a whole other thread.)

Like @Steve076 and @Majestic66 said when it comes to tools

In may opinion its all about larger channels for bigger glass and for hard access windows the “tried and true” Unger zero degree handle it a solid work horse!

Can you make

The answer to that question is most differently. but its not so much the tools it’s the way you setup and design your route work business.

Hope this helps. If you have any other question let me know!

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Never owned a wagtail if I’ve see a need for it I would of bought one. So I concur !!:+1:

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Thanks for the input. I was just watching a video of guy using a wagtail doing store front glass and he was going pretty good with it. It got me thinking about store front with a wagtail. I tend to get a romantic idea stuck in my head from time to time and when I go to follow through with it I quickly realize it just looked good in my imagination.

I haven’t done store front glass in like 10 years. I dropped it because it just wasn’t worth the hassle or the money along side larger commercial and residential. It was always steady though which is probably its main attraction.

I’ve tried the wagtail and the new liquidator on some residential and commercial and I’m just too efficient with my other tools to really like using the flip tools. I just got inspired by the video and thought I should throw the question on the forum in case it was just a romantic idea that was worthless and it looks to be that way.

Wow! That was way better than wasting time going out to get a bunch of store front. I’ll have to post more of my dumb ideas on her more often and save me a ton of time. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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That’s happens to all of us!

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I can’t tell you how many times I have tried something, dropped it, and years later get inspired and try it again only to kick myself for doing so.

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I know exactly what you are saying I do this every time the wagtail discussion comes up I gave 1 I had a few years ago and thought well maybe they fixed their issues, nope…

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Thanks for the input. So I understand your perspective better, how long have you been cleaning and how good would you say you are with a standard mop and squeegee? Can you mop and squeegee at the same time (two hand)? To clarify I’m not talking about just holding the mop in one hand and wet then squeegee after words with the other hand but running both mop and squeegee on the glass at the same time? Thanks.

Now I’ve been using Wagtail swivel type squeegees over 16 years.
Discovered could not use fixed squeegees as had a work injure witch restricted movement at the wrist.
Started using Wagtail squeegee that had a two piece swivel.
It made a difference but found that it needed a few adjustments for me to use it to compensate for the wrist injures.
Have made many videos over the years showing the things we have done to get it to work better.
We have now made our own purpose made swivel squeegee that can use all day without have those cramps restrictions in the wrist.
Also eliminates shoulder back and neck cramps when used on a pole.

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