How often do you change your water? - Starting a window cleaning business

Starting a window cleaning business - Equipment you need, suppliers to use and trade organisations to join, etc.

How often do you change your water?

Posted by chartermarque (chartermarque), 1 February 2004

Hi everyone

What a great forum!

I am just starting out and have about 30 residential customers sofar, more each week.

My question, do you guys use clean water for each house, or more specifically, how dirty can you let it become before changing?

Also how bubbly should it be using Ecover dish detergent?

Any advice warmly received

Thanks
Mark

Posted by mickeyfat (VGC), 1 February 2004

i use fairy..and i put about 1/5 of a small bottle..i top the water up when it get low in the bucket and somtiomes top the fairy up..i hope none of my customers read this but somtimes the water is brown Shocked

i have been known to use a puddle if im stuck round the back of a house...god im bad Grin

Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 1 February 2004

Hi Chartermarque
I change my water at each job for fresh. I use GG4 which tends to go dirty quite quickly Shocked

Steve

Posted by mickeyfat (VGC), 1 February 2004

at everyjob!! Shocked

i wish you cleaned my house Grin

Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 1 February 2004

on 02/01/04 at 15:49:03, VGC wrote:

i hope none of my customers read this but somtimes the water is brown Shocked

i have been known to use a puddle if im stuck round the back of a house...god im bad Grin

I am glad you dont clean mine Wink

Steve

Posted by g_griffin (g_griffin), 1 February 2004

on 02/01/04 at 15:59:00, Steve Lowe wrote:

Hi Chartermarque
I change my water at each job for fresh. I use GG4 which tends to go dirty quite quickly Shocked

Steve

Steve,
Is that on residential work or commercial?

Gerry.

Posted by Majestic (Majestic), 1 February 2004

Start the week with 5ltr clean water change it friday if it needs it or not Grin

No really 5 ltr clean water every morning , the same in the afternoon Cool

Posted by STEVE71163 (Steve Lowe), 1 February 2004

Hi Gerry
On domestic i would change the water at each job and on commercial obviously it depends on how big the job is. The domestic jobs i tend to do are normally big jobs though Wink

Steve

Posted by Simon_King (Simon_King), 2 February 2004

Hi chartermarque!
Generaly I will change my water twice a day but of course that depends on how dirty it is. If your getting round to your work on time and it isn't on a busy main road with all the pollution etc then change it at dinner.
However be aware that some people always want you to use fresh water on their windows. If someone offers you fresh water and you have done two or three houses prior to them well it just might be a hint by them for you to change the water!That can be a pain if you feel the water is fine and you've just put in a load of GG4 or Glimmer clean and the customer wants you to chuck it away and use fresh!

Posted by mickeyfat (VGC), 2 February 2004

on 11/17/03 at 09:07:47, peterf wrote:

Gerry, I don't use it at all now, I only used it when I had a free sample. I use Fairy.

The main benefits apart from extra cleaning power is the fact that the window stays wetter longer, and you are supposed to get less bleed back on to the glass after squeegeeing, it is not supposed to leave the film on the glass that the dish soap leaves either. When you add the dish soap you get more glide, but I dont suppose the other qualities remain.

When we use a substance in our water it is not to clean the window, it is to make squeegeeing easy, give it glide. I have personally dipped my applicator in a dirty puddle in an emergency, to get that last couple of windows done on a roof for example. These windows were left just as clean as all the rest. It was the remaining dish soap left in my applicator mixed with the dirty water that enabled me to leave these windows clean.

I found gg3 to have the same effect as using water straight out the tap when cleaning regularly cleaned windows. When having to deal with really stubborn stuff on the glass such as smoke on the insides of pubs, I found it to cut through it easier.

What I would recommend to do with it now is mix some up in a spray bottle, and take it with you when needed.

Peter Fogwill

Not just me then Grin

Posted by fez (fez), 2 February 2004

I use GG3 and change the water every three or four houses. Grin

Posted by fez (fez), 2 February 2004

on 02/02/04 at 15:45:55, Simon_King wrote:

However be aware that some people always want you to use fresh water on their windows. If someone offers you fresh water and you have done two or three houses prior to them well it just might be a hint by them for you to change the water!

I've got a customer, an old lady who insists that I don't use the clean water in my container from my car and always fills a bucket up for me. The trouble is that this takes her 5 minutes on a £6 job (I do it cheap for her).
This is a real pain in the neck when you want to get on but I don't have the heart to dump her! Sad

Posted by Simon_King (Simon_King), 2 February 2004

Hey Fez!
I bet she thinks the world of you really. Do you get a cup of tea as well cos that can really mess your day up when they want to give you the chapter and verse of everthing thats happened since you last came!!
Where would we be without them?
Probably three streets further on!!

Posted by chartermarque (chartermarque), 3 February 2004

Thanks for all your replies. Lots of you seem to use GG3, which I will try once I have afew more customers (and a bit more cash).

Thanks again
Mark

Posted by WavieDavie (WavieDavie), 3 February 2004

Hi Mark,

In case you haven't already picked up on it, GG3 is for soft-water areas and GG4 for hard-water. Best to find out first!

Posted by matt (matt), 3 February 2004

we used to change it at lunch time, now we go all day on 1 bucket

thats 2 guys on 1 bucket with 1 Gal in, and 15mm of GG4

at the end of the day, we pour out the mud from the bucket

Posted by fez (fez), 3 February 2004

on 02/02/04 at 22:03:12, Simon_King wrote:

Hey Fez!
Do you get a cup of tea as well cos that can really mess your day up

Yep, you guessed it, I do get a cup of tea that's red hot (so I'll stay longer), but what can you do? I'm too bloody soft.

Posted by fez (fez), 3 February 2004

on 02/03/04 at 15:28:14, matt wrote:

we used to change it at lunch time, now we go all day on 1 bucket

thats 2 guys on 1 bucket with 1 Gal in, and 15mm of GG4

at the end of the day, we pour out the mud from the bucket

Does anyone look in your bucket? I've had some comment on the lack of bubbles in GG3, so they do notice these things.

Posted by matt (matt), 3 February 2004

used to use a Yellow builders bucket, its a nice BRIGHT YELLOW colour, i thought good for Health and safety reasons,

BUT

people would offer us clean water, so now we use a BLACK bucket

Posted by paul (paul), 4 February 2004

my guys change the water in there buckets four times a day some times more depending on how dirty the windows were also add gg4 for that extra shine Tongue

Posted by sc (sc), 4 February 2004

A bucket of water can be kept clean until it runs out.

If you quickly dip your applicator into the water and then wring it out on the floor the water will stay clean.

If a cloth gets to dirty to use then get a fresh one rather than put a dirty cloth in your bucket.

My water was getting filthy all the time until I was given thse tips. Of course these tips wont work for everybody, it depends on what methods you use to clean the windows.

Posted by chartermarque (chartermarque), 5 February 2004

Thanks SC - what a good idea Grin

When I clean the car I do this but hadn't thought to try it for windows.

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