Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Pete10 on July 10, 2012, 08:46:22 pm
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Went on a large commercial job today with another window cleaner who'd kindly agreed to help....only agreed to do the job verbally last week on a description from a cleaning contractor (they'd taken the job on at one days notice) as i'd turned up to site to have a look around and got told to push off by the site manager.
Get on site today...absolute chaos....wasn't a building clean more a building site....must've been 200 guys still working on the site and smashing the crap out of the place....dust and hazards everywhere, half the carpets down and getting ruined, no keys for rooms or windows.....sposed to be scaffolded but half scaffolding had dissapeared....needless to say we walked off.
Didnt like letting the commercial cleaner down but couldnt work like that....my view from experience in a previous career/ life is the contractor is going bust hence accelerating the work regardless of schedule to get paid then sink the company.....couldnt see us getting paid ~ we got told clean them now then come back again and do them again at a later date.....just didnt add up...all other trades were up in arms so guess the contracts in dissary...
Any thoughts/ similar experiences? comments welcome... >:(
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I would have walked too. Disorganised, dangerous and probably wouldn't get paid.
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Went on a large commercial job today with another window cleaner who'd kindly agreed to help....only agreed to do the job verbally last week on a description from a cleaning contractor (they'd taken the job on at one days notice) as i'd turned up to site to have a look around and got told to push off by the site manager.
Get on site today...absolute chaos....wasn't a building clean more a building site....must've been 200 guys still working on the site and smashing the crap out of the place....dust and hazards everywhere, half the carpets down and getting ruined, no keys for rooms or windows.....sposed to be scaffolded but half scaffolding had dissapeared....needless to say we walked off.
Didnt like letting the commercial cleaner down but couldnt work like that....my view from experience in a previous career/ life is the contractor is going bust hence accelerating the work regardless of schedule to get paid then sink the company.....couldnt see us getting paid ~ we got told clean them now then come back again and do them again at a later date.....just didnt add up...all other trades were up in arms so guess the contracts in dissary...
Any thoughts/ similar experiences? comments welcome... >:(
allways go with the gut,as leroy gibbs from ncis would say
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I learnt years ago that there are two kinds of money.
Easy money and hard money............ stick to the easy kind and learn to say no to some work that comes your way, as it often works out as hard graft, that doesnt earn you anymore but makes you feel like crap.
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You did the right thing by the sounds of it ;D
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I learnt years ago that there are two kinds of money.
Easy money and hard money............ stick to the easy kind and learn to say no to some work that comes your way, as it often works out as hard graft, that doesnt earn you anymore but makes you feel like crap.
yes i like easy money too.
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building :o :o :o :o not talking about the odd painter or chippy knocking about snaggin or carpet layers shufflin about....i mean literally still involved in constructing the fabric of the building......dust & poo everywhere????
all i can imagine is they're going under....so they bill the client for the clean....you dont get paid and the builder goes under owing loads of trades....
one minute the scaffolding was going to be there....then it dissapeared, sounds like the scaffolder hadnt been paid either...
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Definitely did the right thing mate.
Sounds a nightmare,
Dean.
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building :o :o :o :o not talking about the odd painter or chippy knocking about snaggin or carpet layers shufflin about....i mean literally still involved in constructing the fabric of the building......dust & poo everywhere????
all i can imagine is they're going under....so they bill the client for the clean....you dont get paid and the builder goes under owing loads of trades....
one minute the scaffolding was going to be there....then it dissapeared, sounds like the scaffolder hadnt been paid either...
it happened with myself working on a job for Richard at isparkle,turned up and it was still in progress,one incident we cleaned a row of windows and then they decided to cut plaster board with a circular saw right next to the windows
thats why i would never ever do that kind of clean
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Went on a large commercial job today with another window cleaner who'd kindly agreed to help....only agreed to do the job verbally last week on a description from a cleaning contractor (they'd taken the job on at one days notice) as i'd turned up to site to have a look around and got told to push off by the site manager.
Get on site today...absolute chaos....wasn't a building clean more a building site....must've been 200 guys still working on the site and smashing the crap out of the place....dust and hazards everywhere, half the carpets down and getting ruined, no keys for rooms or windows.....sposed to be scaffolded but half scaffolding had dissapeared....needless to say we walked off.
Didnt like letting the commercial cleaner down but couldnt work like that....my view from experience in a previous career/ life is the contractor is going bust hence accelerating the work regardless of schedule to get paid then sink the company.....couldnt see us getting paid ~ we got told clean them now then come back again and do them again at a later date.....just didnt add up...all other trades were up in arms so guess the contracts in dissary...
Any thoughts/ similar experiences? comments welcome... >:(
this sounds like a company i did some work for a few years back. It was a build clean company but basically they used to sub all window cleaning and had there own team of cleaners all doley types.
Anyway she rings me up one day to do some quotes, so i drive there and only the skeleton of the building is up! been sent to jobs much the same as above, but the icing on the cake...
One day she rings me up desperate to go do a build clean on a new classroom at a school in a town about 40 miles away. So I told her if you want me to drop what im doing it will be £300 so she says fine.
I get to the job and the builder asks who i am, i explain who sent me and says "i dont think so!" he then tells me he had just sent her cleaners home (i saw them in the car park) as they had turned up with hardly any cleaning gear, it was all domestic stuff brought from home and they didnt have a clue what they were doing!
so i phone my woman and tell her whats happened and i will still be charging her £200 for my wasted day (kind of me to discount my rate i know) so i had a nice little drive up the coast and back for £200
prob my most enjoyable work day ever ;D
After that episode I thought it best to leave our dealings at that. She was basically a hustler getting work and subbing it out etc, but as she never had a pro cleaning team there was always some disaster but she always had plenty of work ???
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I did one the other day. They were getting ready for an open day. Eight prestige houses, none finished but wanted the windows cleaned. Paid on the day an outrageous sum. ;D
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I would have walked too. Disorganised, dangerous and probably wouldn't get paid.
ditto
i would just give em a quick courtesy call and request payment upfront as you do not have faith!
you never know people will pay up if they have to get it cleaned.
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building :o :o :o :o not talking about the odd painter or chippy knocking about snaggin or carpet layers shufflin about....i mean literally still involved in constructing the fabric of the building......dust & poo everywhere????
all i can imagine is they're going under....so they bill the client for the clean....you dont get paid and the builder goes under owing loads of trades....
one minute the scaffolding was going to be there....then it dissapeared, sounds like the scaffolder hadnt been paid either...
what a disaster that was bob! i learned never to say yes to those jobs after that. i didnt get paid and lost out as i had to pay you! :)
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...sounds very similar.......came to me saying they doubted the quality of their last window cleaners.....a likely story.....got sent to a site last thursday.....and waited and waited and waited...three hours out of the afternoon....very disorganised crew....committed to a job for them this sunday....after that...I'm out.
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building
Yup, last year and they went bust owing me 1K.
Scaffold was still up.
Anyone I work for now commercially gets to go through my solvency test here http://www.companysearchesmadesimple.com/
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building :o :o :o :o not talking about the odd painter or chippy knocking about snaggin or carpet layers shufflin about....i mean literally still involved in constructing the fabric of the building......dust & poo everywhere????
all i can imagine is they're going under....so they bill the client for the clean....you dont get paid and the builder goes under owing loads of trades....
one minute the scaffolding was going to be there....then it dissapeared, sounds like the scaffolder hadnt been paid either...
what a disaster that was bob! i learned never to say yes to those jobs after that. i didnt get paid and lost out as i had to pay you! :)
they got the proper boys in after that i heard who dont mind a bit of hard graft who dont mind getting dirty ;D ;D ;D
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...thanks matt, cant see a solvency test there though...company formation website....would ask a few contractors to see if they've been paid...but cant be bothered......think its pretty obvious they're struggling.
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... apologies...got the credit check site...going to buy the report as might be able to save the cleaning contractor some money...they are due on site next week...
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Went on a large commercial job today with another window cleaner who'd kindly agreed to help....only agreed to do the job verbally last week on a description from a cleaning contractor (they'd taken the job on at one days notice) as i'd turned up to site to have a look around and got told to push off by the site manager.
And that is where this story would have ended for me ...
Get on site today...absolute chaos....wasn't a building clean more a building site....must've been 200 guys still working on the site and smashing the crap out of the place....dust and hazards everywhere, half the carpets down and getting ruined, no keys for rooms or windows.....sposed to be scaffolded but half scaffolding had dissapeared....needless to say we walked off.
Didnt like letting the commercial cleaner down but couldnt work like that....my view from experience in a previous career/ life is the contractor is going bust hence accelerating the work regardless of schedule to get paid then sink the company.....couldnt see us getting paid ~ we got told clean them now then come back again and do them again at a later date.....just didnt add up...all other trades were up in arms so guess the contracts in dissary...
Any thoughts/ similar experiences? comments welcome... >:(
Run Forrest, Run! ;D
:)
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... apologies...got the credit check site...going to buy the report as might be able to save the cleaning contractor some money...they are due on site next week...
Yes I put the wrong link up initially. Good luck with that. I'd be interested to hear how the credit report comes back.
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....doesnt look good, they had previously been a small ish contract builder so looks like the contract was a big step-up for them, they are building two or three sites for this development, i'd seen two and both looked to be in a certain amount of chaos. They are only £1mln in debt as of a year ago but if a £100-150mln contract goes bad by just ten percent they'll get wiped out along with anyone they owe....whoops, lucky escape.
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many thanks chaps....was really questioning if anyone had experience of builders cleans whilst they're still building :o :o :o :o not talking about the odd painter or chippy knocking about snaggin or carpet layers shufflin about....i mean literally still involved in constructing the fabric of the building......dust & poo everywhere????
all i can imagine is they're going under....so they bill the client for the clean....you dont get paid and the builder goes under owing loads of trades....
one minute the scaffolding was going to be there....then it dissapeared, sounds like the scaffolder hadnt been paid either...
You did right IMO. I've done builders clean when it's incomplete. It was nowhere near as bad as yours though - just a bit of second fixing going on. I did the outside twice but I allowed for that as I knew it wouldn't come up on one pass. As it happens, mine was acceptable - low hazard risks and dirty work completed. It was still hard graft though. I made up my mind that it was my last builders clean even though things were relatively OK. The building company has a good local reputation too and I was fully paid within 3 weeks of invoicing.
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My work is all large scale builders cleans.
We can pressure wash a whole store front and by the end of the day it is in a right mess again.
We pressure washed the media, royal and athletes entrance to the Olympic Village last weekend. When we were packing up to go they were cutting wood right in the middle of it, dust everywhere.
It is a frame of mind - I used to get really wound up and would stomp about but know I just see it as more work that will be charged for.
Give me huge builders cleans all day long.
Good luck
Rob ;D
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Id have walked unless i could have spoken directly to somebody regarding my worries.
Id have also priced work in stages to make sure you both agree on whats done at what price.
If you cant agree or talk to any1 walk away and forget it.