[len]

  Hi was just wondering what you should expect to earn per hour cleaning windows ? I have noticed some people say that they expect to take £25 per hour, just wondered how there customers respond if it takes for instance one hour to do there property, do they complain that they think they are over charged ?  

[windows_chepstow]

  just wondered how there customers respond if it takes for instance one hour to do there property, do they complain that they think they are over charged ?  

PWC Magazine recently stated that £25 per hour is the average turnover a self-employed window cleaner earns.

After reading many posts on this forum and from personal experience, I think £25 per hour is achievable; but there are regional variations.

Some of the lads north of the English border can't charge the same prices as the window cleaners who work in Central London, for example.

And it's not just a case of leaving the house at say 8.00 am and returning 8 hours later and having earnt £200; not for me anyway.  Well apart from one or two well earning days per month.

Anyway, to your post; customers don't generally complain.  Most, if not all of us are up front about how much we charge for the end product, ie clean windows, and that's what the customer pays for.  I've had one or two remark, 'that was quick', but I always take that as a compliment.

We may have lost the odd account too; but that's rare.

What we receive isn't our wage, it's our turnover and from it we have to deduct tax, national insurance contributions, equipment costs, fuel, insurance cover, money for holiday pay, sickness pay; times when the weather prevents you from working and probably some other stuff that doesn't spring to mind.

Len, are you a window cleaner, or are you considering taking up window cleaning?

[Trevor Knight]

Hi Len,

What Tosh has commented is correct, the main point being the regional variations.

I am based in the south and we charge that rate and in certain circumstances more, it depends on the clients.

Regarding spending an hour on a job and wanting to charge £25, yep, if I got less I wouldn't take them on, remember, its regional.

Good luck

Trev

[brett walker]

I was doing a customers windows yesterday for 10 pounds, she started asking me how many i could do an hour and then she says you must be on good money an hour.  I thought here we go, so i quickly said to her if it rains tomorrow i do not earn a penny she quickly got the point and made me a coffee.

Plus as Tosh has explained theres all the other things and i also find with wfp there is more preperation getting your equipment and water set up plus collecting which is all time
which we dont get paid for

regards

Brett

[Spursboy1972]

I agree with Trevor. It also depends how good and speedy your technique is. I started at about £10- £15 per hour. Now the same houses earn me in excess of £20 per hour. I have soime hopuses that earn me in excess of £35 per hour. If the customer is happy with the price and the service they dont care how long it trakes.

[Easyclean Windows]

Also if you start cleaning alot of commercial properties which are on invoice terms between 30-90 days then in theory you could have worked all day for nothing untill you get paid.Then if you clean these sort of properties three times in a week then it rains for the other two you havent turned over as much as some customers think you do.

[KJG]

I've earned any thing from £100+ (commercial only) an hour to £0 a week, so what? Why should window cleaners have to explain their earnings to punters

[Londoner]

It depends on you. If you are quick and have the right sort of houses at the right price you will earn good money.

However, its up to you to build up a good book. It doesn't just happen. And you have to keep at it.

[Moderator David@stives]

£25.00 an hour is NOT the average hourly rate for window cleaners , that is very mis-leading and i would like to know where pwc magazine got that information from.
Also what qualifies them to state that information, have they got figures to back that claim up.

I think the official figures from the tax office (dont quote me on it) is about £20,000 a year no where near £50,000.

£25.00 is an internet forum price and does not reflect the prices being charged by non forum users.

Be honest has this forum encouraged you to increase your prices, it did with me over 50% in fact.

I have got relatives who are window cleaners in different parts of the country and i know a few more besides and i speak to every window cleaner i see.

Most of them say 80% think i am winding them up when i say i can achieve £25.00 an hour, there are lots of w/c working for approx £15.00 an hour, just check out e-bay from time to time and look at the rounds for sale you will see most state £15.00 an hour and they even brag about that.

£25.00 is very misleading indeed, Does thst include travelling time etc

8 hours a day £200
5 days £1000

I bet less than 1% of people can achieve that figure on this forum, with no help from anyone else.

Even if you manage it one week ,you certainly wont do it every week.

Lets be realistic about earnings or every one will jump in and give up there regular jobs.

In window cleaning people confuse cleaning time and hourly earnings. If you Charge £25.00 to clean an house and it takes an hour that is not your hourly rate. what about travelling to the property and coming away again, what about dealing with payment for that property, what about the times you are half way there and the heavens open.

[Trevor Knight]

Hi David,

I think alot depends on your location.

I am based down south and we achieve this rate, day in , day out.

However, my mum lives in Blackpool, and her window cleaner charges £6 for a house I would charge £15, so for him to achieve this rate is much harder and probably not within his grasp.

I guess its all down to how financially viable your area is?

Best wishes,

Trev

[JohnL]

location, location, location

If you have houses set in rows or estates the time v price factor will be different to having to jump about like I do. I have 5 'rounds' each take roughly a day but in those I only have 3 house close enough together to walk from one to another, all the rest I have a drive between each. So price is not just based on the property in front of you but also the total involvement in doing the job.

I have just gained a 22 window house for £40 and it should take just over the hour to do.

Its 15 miles away, has 2 neighbouring houses who dont have a wc-er and takes 25 mins to get there. Thats a 30 mile round trip, an hours travelling plus an hour on the job. Doesnt sound good but even though its on Exmoor and its going to be a pig at times  I am confident of getting  one if not both of the  neighbours as well so it will be worth it!   

Pricing at the end of the day has also got to give value. If the customer thinks he/she is being taken for a ride it wont do you any good in the long run.

 JohnL

[markybop]

Also,  are we talkin domestic or commercial cleaning, coz you should be earning nearly double for commercial!

[supernova77]

Yes, I agree a lot does depend on location. I am down south, and I aim to earn £25+ an hour, BUT - I don't work 8 hours a day 5 days a week!

But also... Here is my tale from yesterday and today:

Started cleaning the outside and inside of some office windows yesterday at 7:30am, completed them by 9:45am. Now, this is my best priced job I have ever had as I earn £200 from it... Yes, that's alost £100 per hour!!! But I only do them every 12 weeks...

However - The next job I went onto was a nightmare! It was a conservatory roof clean, and cleaning the conservatory gutters out. I got there and quoted her £80... It went on to take me 5 hours of really really hard work, it really was a nightmare ... So that job worked out at just £16 per hour. I really did get the pricing all wrong on that one!

All in all I had a good day yesterday, I earn't £280... But I don't do that day in day out.

Then this morning I went to clean the inside and ourside of a large house and conservatory... I was there 2 hours and earn't £90 from it. So that's £45 per hour!

I'm not trying to gloat or anything... I'm just underlining the fact that on some jobs you can earn really well per hour, and on others you don't.

I try to work to a daily rate rather than an hourly one, if you do it that way then it stops you rushing jobs so much. I work 3 days one week and then 4 the next and so on and try to earn £150+ per day.

Andy

[Londoner]

Just as a side question. How much of the average window cleaners day is actually spent cleaning windows?

By the time you take out loading / unloading vehicle, driving , chatting to customers etc etc theres half your day gone straight away.

If you want to talk about how much you earn per hour you have to take all this into account.
JohnL has a good example, doing a £40 house in an hour is great but he has an hours round trip to get there and back.

Building a good round is much more than just collecting a long list of names and addresses.

Time management is something else to consider. I bet if most of us sat down and really looked at what we do we could work a lot more efficiently. I know I could.

[D.Salkeld_Ltd]

Len, and All,

Rate per hour has to be calculated over the day and adding up the ACTUAL time YOU ARE WORKING!!  I'll be honest with you; my average day:

07:30 - 09:30           Comercial work                      2hrs
09:30 - 11:00           Break - Home for Breaky!                 1.5hrs
11.00 - 13:00           Houses                                   2hrs
13:00 - 14:00           Break - Lunch                                   1.00hrs
14:00 - 17:00           Houses                                  3hrs
TOTAL WORK Time                              7hrs
Total stoped time                                                              2.50hrs

Sorry but I have a stricked policy of NEVER talking about my earnings publicaly

Remember try to keep up the Blade, brush or scrim on glass time!

I always look at Day rate and ask what has affected it!

This year I have increased my Dayrate by 20%.  This is mainly due to attitude.
I altered my round into two rounds Commercial and Houses.  Started at 07:30 on Commercials (No more Traffic warden to dodge!!) so 30% of the day rate is done before Breaky. The WFP has made the job easier and increased my working rate.

At the end it's down to our attitude and GET ON WITH IT!!!

David

[neil100]

I live in the north west of England.

Their are lots of very cheap w/cleaners up here, I mean CHEAP,CHEAP.They crawl out of the woodwork every summer. Plagued with um we are. So its hard to get a very high rate per hour.

Last year when on my own I would try to average £150 a day, I would be very dissapointed if I did not earn that. 5 days a week, start at 8am finish at 5pm with 45 mins for dinner.

Now with wfp I spend the same time at work in a day but I earn a min of £200 up to £300 without rushing if I,m on my own.If my lad works with me I earn more. Though I can have finnished my work by wendsday lunch  time on some weeks.

Not bragging just telling it how it is. Last 24 weeks. I have used wfp since the start of the year. Earned over £22,000 and I do less then a 4 day week.

I am going into commercial wc next so I expect another jump in earnings over the next year. If you want a good rate per hour, be organized and go and get it.

I have given my sons freind free advice. He is building up his round and he goes out to earn £200 a day. 6 to 7 hours it takes him.

Nel

[len]

Hi all, thanks for your feedback, lots of very interesting comments , I have been slowly building up my own round and find that with practice I am getting faster  this is great obviously but what worry’s me is what do I say to a £10.00 customer who’s house takes me half an hour to complete if they think £20.00 an hour is over the top ? I can imagine a lot of customers earn a lot less from what they might consider to be a more qualified job. has anybody been questioned by customers or do you find that they except that window cleaning is worthy of what can be quite high hourly rates. Regards, Len.

[Helen]

I tend to go along the lines of 'the manual trade market is where the money is at present' thanks to everyone leaving school and wanting to sit behind a computer screen it left vast gaps in manual trades, hence why plumbers earn (quoted somewhere) £100k a year. Not so many years ago a plumber, bricky, plasterer etc was a cheap labour market, not any more.
Plus you need to mention the cost of your equipment, insurance cost, fuel costs atc that soon brings them back down to earth. Yes £20 is a lot of money for what is basically window cleaning but how much of that £20 are you actually left with?
 

[len]

Hi Helen thanks for your response , very valid points, I suppose some customers also consider window cleaning is potentially  quite dangerous occupation and could be prepared to pay a premium to get someone to do it for them, as for an hourly rate what would you think a good window cleaner should expect to make ?. Regards, Len.

[Trevor Knight]

Len,

£20 an hour is a reasonable amount of money to charge.

What your clients dont take into consideration is when it rains you dont earn, when your on holiday or ill you dont earn. Its a risky business and is rewarded financially when you stick at it and work hard.

You dont have to justify anything to your clients and just for the record if a job took me 30 minutes I would be charging £20 and that works out at £40 an hour.

Onwards and upwards!!

best wishes,

Trev