[Steve Mac]

I only watch the leading edge of the blade, which is 'dog eared' with a 45 degree cut with the rubber cut exactly to it.

Can anyone expand a bit on this, cos 'dog earing' from in at the bottom to out at the top helps on some, while cutting from out at the bottom to in at top works on other frames.

As Cadbury once asked - How do you do yours??

[master cleaner]

i never detail unless it is needed which i find is not that often , i charge an average of £1 for sills. frames are obviously a lot more. i have always done this and have had no complaints after 11 years

gary

[Steve Mac]

 Just found out on another thread what you mean about dogearing.

Makes sense, i'm off to get some pliers.

[sunshine windows]

I used to work with a couple of lads who never detailed anything. They used to do a fairly good job but never did anything more than slap some water on the windows and squeegee it off. Any marks other than noticable blobs of bird poo just got left.

If i was a paying customer i certainly wouldn't want any visible marks like spider poo and insect guts left on my windows after supposedly being cleaned, and this was reflected in the amount of complaints we used to get.

Hence the reason that as soon as i strarted up on my own it was one price fits all. What i mean by this is i clean absolutely everything in the price i quote for the windows and inform the customer of this when i'm quoting. Get rid of all cobwebs and spiders in corners of frames and glass, wipe all the framework over (not necessarily to a gleaming standard but cleaned), then clean windows and re-do if any marks are still visible, detail edges and finally wipe over sill and framework of excess water.

I do this for absolutely every customer and charge accordingly. If customer's aren't happy with the price then they don't get cleaned but i can assure you, i've not had a single complaint yet and some very nice thank you notes and letters returned with cheques in the post. This to me makes the job well worth doing properly.

If i were to drop my standards for certain customers that just wanted their windows cleaned and nothing else, it would turn into an organisational nightmare. So for me it's high quality cleaning for everyone or nothing at all.

Bit of an essay but i'm feeling chatty today 

Sunshine

[Steve Mac]

Your not waffling at all mate - very sound way of doing things. My girlfriend and me were chatting bout this last night. Until very recently i had been rushing alot of my jobs. I hate having to do that, but at the price i'm doing these at, it's sort of nessecary. I don't leave a mess when i do this, but i can't say it's the best job.
 Over the last few weeks tho, i've spent alot of time on this forum, and started making a decent job, however long it takes. Pretty soon i'll be putting prices up to match, and like you're doing at the minute, I'll explain what's all included in a price when taking on new work.
Then everyone's happy!

[JohnL]

Glad to hear others are like me and do a full job. But I am only in the first few months of WC after being asked by people who have lost their  WCer ( I am a painter & decorator ) As I have said previously I am not going out to take work from others and will not do so and only doing WCleaning where these people have lost there WCer for whatever reason. I only have about 20 customers but these are relatively large houses etc spread over a large area and take around three days to do. For instance one is a holiday complex with 20 chalets plus a 52 window house which takes a while - I call that 1 customer    My price is approximately 25% higher than the last cleaners but I clean everything around the window, the frames and sills the cobwebs the lot and in every instance the customer is very happy and says they have never had the windows look so clean so I think a thorough job is worth it - so far that is! 

Re edges, I find the plastic double - glazed windows with the black rubber seal which sits out from the window is the worst for detailing. I always have to edge these but where the rubber seal sits flush I never have to edge nor do I on wooden windows except where the paint is cracked and falling off.

I have said before that a good relationship with the customer and setting the right price is vital but at the end of the day those dont count for anything if the job looks shoddy because a more competitive WCer will jump in if the customer is not happy with result.

Just imho - and I am feeling chatty as well this afternoon, but not for long because I am going out in the sun for an hour or two   

JohnL

[ducky]

Dog/earing, get a pair of pliers and bend the edge of your channel, towards you, then ,before you put your blade into the channel, cut the edges like so, \_______/  you will have no detailing to do afterwords.

                         Cheers 

[mattstanley]

Dog/earing, get a pair of pliers and bend the edge of your channel, towards you, then ,before you put your blade into the channel, cut the edges like so, \_______/  you will have no detailing to do afterwords.

                         Cheers 

Ducky,
Would the longer edge of the rubber above be the edge nearest the handle, or would the rubber taper out at each end?
Does that make sense?
Matt.

[ducky]

Taper out at each end. \|________|/ from the end of the channel. Inagine the line up is the end of the channel, cut your blade as in diagram. ducky. 
                                             

[mattstanley]

Cheers, I'll try that tomorrow.

[Mike George]

I ue the same approach as Sunshine and always clean glass, frames and sills. A couple of people have asked for a price for just the glass but I say it's the same.

I never try to 'steal' customers from other window cleaners, but last week I picked up 10 new customers in three streets from 200 flyers because I do the frames, and at least 3 of those were switching from other cleaners. In one case I charged three times what the customer was paying before, but the previous window cleaner refused to clean frames.

[carl stanton]

me too tosh frames extra, unless it is a well paid job anyway!

[Steve Mac]

 I tried a few things i've read on this forum today. Dog-eared my channel, did'nt soap right to the edge, trimmed the rubber to the right size.It took me a few hours to get used to being careful with my applicator, but once i was used to it i was flying along. The edges only needed detailing once in a while, and if i was the customer, i would have been very pleased with the job i was doing.

If i hadn't decided to look back through old posts last week while it rained, then i'm fairly sure i would have earned a good tenner less today, at least.

[Steve Mac]

 Actually, the truth is, i'd made 80 quid by lunch, so decided to knock off and come home to do some pottering about..

 That's why i'm self-employed tho.

[jeff1]

we all have different methods and they work for us,

but the only thing we all have in common, is that if we do a good job for our customers, they tell very few people, but if we do a bad job for our customers, they tell everyone.

morrell is!! do a good job