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Window Cleaning Issues - Canvassing, pole systems, pricing, problems, etc.

Access to water

Posted by Iain_P (Iain_P), 22 January 2004
i am starting a cleaning round and am unsure about where to get the water from once i am several miles from my house, i would think that with a van you would just have a water tank but i will be using my car. do you just ask a customer once the bucket is empty?
Posted by fez (fez), 22 January 2004
I use a car at the moment and I fill up every morning with hot water in a large plastic drum. The kind of thing that you buy from a camping shop for about £8 and it lasts me most, if not all of the day. If you put it in the boot with your bags of scrims and towels around it, it stays warm all day. Grin
Posted by matt (matt), 23 January 2004
fit 1 of those bottle inside a box in your boot, line the box with 2 inch polystrene (get it from a builder suppler, or even a DIY store, B&Q) only cheap, a few quid, it stays warm all day

i have 2 X 1 Gallon comfort softener containers, 1 for the morning and 1 for the afternoon, works a treat
Posted by taffy_2 (taffy_2), 24 January 2004
go to your nearest ambulance station or fire station and ask for their old 25 ltr containers they use for keeping traffic lane cleaner they use to wash their veichles I dont have any problems having these
Posted by denzle (Denzle), 24 January 2004
We use the Pulex oblong bucket which is half filled with water each morning with a dash of dish soap added. These buckets have lids which when attached stops the water sloshing out.
This bucket is kept purely for swilling out the stip washers every few houses. On our work belts we have holsters with 1lt sports type bottles on, these have the gg4 / water mix in which is applied directly to the strip washer as needed. There is no need to carry a bucket around with you with this set up. 1lt of gg4 mixture will do at least 6 houses which is about when the stip washer needs a freshen up in the bucket.
It works brilliantly for us.
Hope this helps
Denzle
Posted by crystal (crystal), 24 January 2004
on the subject of gg4 can you mix a large amount up & keep it for as & when its needed probably over months in my case without the mix weakening or is the shelf life indefinite Embarassed Embarassed Huh
Posted by simonb (simonb), 24 January 2004
By 'stip washer' do you mean applicator?
Posted by denzle (Denzle), 24 January 2004
Yes, sorry we just call them strip washers.
I mix up GG4 in large quantities, usually in 5lt
" Comfort " bottles which are kept in the vans. I usually make up about 20 bottles at a time and it doesn't seem to loose any of its cleaning properties.
Just beware that if it freezes really hard you are likely to have 20 comfort bottle shaped lollies in the morning though.
Denzle
Posted by crystal (crystal), 24 January 2004
on 01/24/04 at 19:48:44, taffy_2 wrote:
go to your nearest ambulance station or fire station and ask for their old 25 ltr containers they use for keeping traffic lane cleaner they use to wash their veichles I dont have any problems having these

also  another free supplier is the local garage/petrol station i picked one up yesterday Grin used for the shampoo for car wash, make sure you rinse it out well tho Cheesy
Posted by crystal (crystal), 24 January 2004
thanks denzle, ive just got a sample of gg3 it says 3ml to a bucket mix does this sound ok is this what you do or is it each to his own to see what suits me best Huh
Posted by matt (matt), 24 January 2004
it depends on your location and type of water

we use 15ml per gal
Posted by fez (fez), 24 January 2004
Try it with 3ml and you'll struggle a little with squeegeeing, I find that 10ml is about the optimum amount; any more and it starts to foam too much and any less and it becomes harder to squeegee.

Just experiment a little. Have you got a measurer? Huh
Posted by crystal (crystal), 24 January 2004
on 01/24/04 at 21:57:28, fez wrote:
Try it with 3ml and you'll struggle a little with squeegeeing, I find that 10ml is about the optimum amount; any more and it starts to foam too much and any less and it becomes harder to squeegee.

Just experiment a little. Have you got a measurer? Huh

nope , no measure just sample bottle is 30ml so guess ill mix different measures & see which suits best got a plastic spoon the type given with medicine its 3ml use that im in a soft water area by the way Grin Grin
Posted by denzle (Denzle), 25 January 2004
Its very much a trial and error process, we live in a fairly hard water area so i add about 10-15 mls of GG4. just experiment until you get the formula that works well for you.
Denzle
Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 25 January 2004
on 01/24/04 at 21:01:42, crystal wrote:
thanks denzle, ive just got a sample of gg3 it says 3ml to a bucket mix does this sound ok is this what you do or is it each to his own to see what suits me best Huh


Hi Crystal
              I quarter fill a contractor bucket and then add 10ml of GG4 but i think its a bit of trial and error until you get it to suit you.

Steve

Posted by crystal (crystal), 25 January 2004
thanks to all for tips Cool looks like im about to have cleaner windows than ever before until i get it right at least  Lips Sealed

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