Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Frequently Asked Questions & Useful Resources => Topic started by: Central on September 25, 2003, 05:30:11 pm
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I have heard on a few occasions that people do £30 per hour window cleaning. Ive been doing this for about 9 months and average about £15 per hour on my own and £30 per hour when two of us work (he's been cleaning windows for about 5 years.
Do people really earn £30 per hour and if so how? Do they charge a lot per house or what? I charge as much as I can and I know I couldn't get any more from the houses I currently have.
Has any one got any advice or are the people who say they earn £30 per hour exaggerating?
Look forward to any comments
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Hi Central,
Yes you can earn £30 an hour window cleaning but it tends to go up and down depending on what jobs you are doing ??? It also depends on what end of the country you live in as i live in the South East where prices are probably higher than North ( Mind you the cost of living is different also :( )
Steve Lowe
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Yes I suppose that is true. I have earnt around £30 per hour on things like gutters but as a rule it tends to be around £15 per hour average over the week.
I live in the midlands, is it just the window cleaners down south that can make £30 an hour or does any one know of anything which could effectively doublew my work rate?
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Hi Derek
I thought you were hydrotech uk ??? ;D
Steve Lowe
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Hi Central
As Steve has said, on certain jobs I'm sure £30 per hour can be achieved but I dont know any window cleaners that can get that level consistently day in and day out unless they get involved with some of the high level Reach & Wash equipment.
I'm sure that certain claims about potential earnings assume 3 things:
1) It never rains
2) You never stop to talk to your customers or collect money
3) It doesnt take long to clean the windows and therefor they're not cleaned very well.
HOWEVER, I'm sure someone said in an earlier post that they charged £1.00 a window. I've also read that Terry Burrows can clean 3 windows and wipe the sills in 9.91 seconds. Potentially that's £1089.00 per hour :o :o :o :o
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I agree with Mike. I remember when i started 18 years ago a couple of window cleaners used to give me some incredible figures of what they say they earned but no matter how hard i worked i could not get anywhere near that amount. :'( But then i noticed when passing the local pub that same afternoon that they must have been in their about 3 hours. :o After that i just took notice of what i could do and concentrated on building my business and let the dreamers stay in the pub. ;D
Steve Lowe
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The whole basis of what you earn depends on what you charge. Most window cleaners (including me) are far too soft.
When I hear what other cleaners are charging I am amazed.
Here in North London £15-20 is charged, and got! for a three bed semi.
We have had gangs of 4-6 blokes coming in from South Wales and the like who come to London for a few days each week to earn as much as possible and then go home. They are really fast.
Rubbish cleaners but they still get the work. They sleep rough in their vans or go to cheap B and Bs. Most appear to drink heavily and look really hung over but you want to see them go.
A two man team will do a house in ten minutes and while one is collecting the money the other is setting up the ladders at the next house. They don't stop for cups of tea or chats and if you tread on their toes they can be very agressive.
Recently we have seen teams of young eastern european blokes operating in much the same way. These teams are making well over £30 each per hour
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I charge between £8=£10 for a 3 bed semi. Cant beleive any 1 in there right mind would pay upto £20 :o
I live in the south east and it is possible to earn £30 a hour.
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This is an interesting point, I live in the Central/ East (Suffolk) and from what I can gather the going rate for a house of a general size is £6, so I guess I'm restricted to what everyone else is charging. Does anyone else charge this amount? obviously it will differ from area to area but I was expecting to charge £7 - £8 per house. £6 just seems quite low for a back and front.
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Hi AMG
I would stick to your £7-£8 a house when canvassing and see how you get on because i have found that if you are reliable and do a good job people will have you even if its a couple of pound more. ;D
Steve Lowe
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I generaly sharge for an average house with 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window at the front and 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window with a pation door at the back about £5-6 if that same house had a conservatory then I'd charge about £7-8 (remembering I wouldnt be able to do one of the upstairs windows). I live just south of Birmingham. I generally do about £15 per hour on average with the odd fAg break hear and there. Does this sound about right or am I undercharging (I really don't see that customers would pay any more though).
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Hi Central,
I think it varies from area to area but we would charge about £10 for a three bedroom semi but i have heard of other window cleaners lately charging £15 but i dont know how many they get ??? We are in Surrey.
Steve Lowe
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Pricing is the hardest part. I never know what to charge.
Average here (NW London)is £10-12 but that often gets a refusal if you are canvassing.
It is hard to put up prices afterwards so I think its better to take a few more refusals but I am the worlds worst.
A lot of WCs still go out at £7 ish and a good friend of mine gets his done for £4. It seems to be based on age, younger WCs are dearer.
There are a lot of sharp operators, fly by nights and rip off merchants who overcharge and do a terrible job and then generally never come back.
I would say don't worry, £15 per hour is twice what a bus driver earns and you don't have to work shifts.
After all its not rocket science.
And you are your own boss.
And on a nice day there is no better job
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I think that it depends on the job, I have a couple of contract jobs where I can earn good money for little work .
I think it all depends what you want to earn per hour , if you want to earn £10 or even £20 per hour it all comes down to your pricing , if you do a good job for a fair price word will start to spread and soon you will be earning £72k per year ;D A 2 up and 2 down here in Fleetwood you will get about £3.00, a 3 bed semi £4.50-£5.00 8)
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Hi John,
I suppose its all relative to the cost of living in your particular area. To buy an average 3 bed semi around here costs about £200,000 so although you tend to earn a bit more you certainly end up paying more than average on a mortgage. :'(
Steve Lowe
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Hi Steve
To buy the same size house here would be about £100,000- £150.000, depending on the area , we have a gang of window cleaners who travel about 40 miles to work here , I cant clean windows for the price that they are charging (dirt cheap) but you get what you pay for . We could turn up at houses next to each other and start at the sme time by the time I have finished the front they are on to the next one ,they dont know how to get into the corners 8)
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saw a ticket today in a show home house from 3 quid bungalows from 2 quid cant see how they do it. i think people are wising up to cheap window cleaners and over priced ones i just picked up a job that a bloke was charging 30 quid for
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I agree,
I think customers are prepared to pay a reasonable price for a decent job but some window cleaners around here are pushing their luck with prices but it backfires when they lose the work.
Steve Lowe
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I think a lot more goes on your appearence than a lot of people give credit for.
Impressions do count and if you have a proper van and wear overalls you look the biz. It really does make a difference.
Put yourself in the customers shoes and see it from their point of view.
Oh yes....and don't forget the corners!
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Hi Londoner,
I agree. When i first started my business i was determined to not look like the average window cleaner down the road and had overalls embroidered with the company name and got a van sign written etc and it worked wonders ;D
Steve Lowe
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I always aim for £20 per hour to cover travelling,collecting etc. I don't always achieve it though.
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When I started I had a couple of cloths a 99p bucket and some fold away ladders. I was given 12 customers and didn't get any more for months.
Then I bought some proper ladders hip bucket scrims etc. and looked the biz and got 3 or 4 new customers a day.
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Hi i only do office and shops and use a tucker poll for most externall windows. I have contracts with wicks, goldsmiths, M & S, Black and Decker etc and can earn around £65 per hour, however my over heads are higher
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Dont get caught up in the £30 an hour thing, theres lots of people making that, and more.
It's down to you, how hard you leaflet, canvass, the quality of your kit and work, the referrals you get, the distance between houses, how fast you can work at good quality etc etc
For instance i've just started, i'm sure down south a house i quote £10 for, they'd be quoting nearer £15, and probably do it twice as fast, where as up north someone might quote £6 for it, but still do two to my every one so they make more.
Swings and roundabouts really.
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take it this way minimum £10 a house and you can easly clean three houses an hour =£30 and this is what you sould be earning if you want goodish life
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Like i said, alot do, but i know that i havnt been going long and at the moment, my houses arnt next door to each other, so i have to spend time packing up and driving.
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For what it's worth, I live in the east of England
£30 per hour? Average w/c works 6 hours per day (less travel, setting up etc.) = £180 per day
5 days a week = £900 per week = £45K PA.
Those on that amount or more as one-man-bands are truly in a small minority.
I'm afraid the internet has become like the newspapers...
You have to separate the truth
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I generaly sharge for an average house with 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window at the front and 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window with a pation door at the back about £5-6 if that same house had a conservatory then I'd charge about £7-8 (remembering I wouldnt be able to do one of the upstairs windows). I live just south of Birmingham. I generally do about £15 per hour on average with the odd f*g break hear and there. Does this sound about right or am I undercharging (I really don't see that customers would pay any more though).
Central
I live and work in the Kings Norton area of Birmingham, My minimum charge is £10.00, I do not get any objection about this price.
If you know the Pool Farm, Hawksley and Druilds Heath estates, you will know that all of these areas are council, and they pay me £10.00 no problem, some even pay me more.
If you are Charging £5.00 to £6.00, then you are very under priced.
The next time someone asks for a quote, Tell them £10.00 and see what they do, if they all run screaming to the "Lickey Hills" then you are over pricing.
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I'll join them, the lickey hills is ace, specially if it's snowing!!!
Will, do you have any work you want to sell, rent or need help on?
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You do know this thread is 4 years old so obviously its underpriced:o
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you can earn that amount but not for 8 hours aday 5 days a week because every one at some time has under priced work.economists say the market dictates the price thats true because people will only pay the going rate here in s.yorks average 3 bed semi £5 -£6 if you tried to charge £10 you may get a few customers but not that many.
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Like williamx, Minimum charge is the way forward for areas used to a cheap cleaner.
You might be told to get lost by 5 people, but 5 people might say yes, at which point, your quids in.
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Started reading all the posts and almost at the end I noticed that 90% of them are 4 years old!
Why can't you start a new topic on the same theme and avoid me and others wasting time reading prices that are 4 years old!!!!!!!!!
:o :o :o :o
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hi guys,im a brit window cleaner living and working out in germany for a few years and "oh my god!" what a difference in pricing.All houses over here are done inside /out,i would say ahouse (average size);kitchen,livingroom,bathroom,and 4-5 bedrooms) with frames,sills etc-45-60€uros,hour to hour and a half work!!
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I am in Holland and I work on the basis of 35 to 40 euro's per hour and for the most part I am hitting it...trouble is that I do not have enough customers to fill my 8 weekly cycle but it will come...
I work wfp and this is enabling me to combine speed with the aimed pricing structure....I am pricing the same if not more than the trad guys around here...but I offer frames as well which very few do...not without additional pricing...
Obviously 1st cleans knock that....
30 quid an hour...yes it's possible....but you'll need a well thought out and executed pricing structure...well placed work, time to build it.
30 quid and hour
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Possible = yes
6 hours a day,5 days a week, 11 months a year = Very unlikely in the early years and obviously location has a very important impact on what can be achieved.
Dave.
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[it...trouble is that I do not have enough customers to fill my 8 weekly cycle but it will come...
why not do them 6 or 7
weekly
regards
mike
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I have set my stall out that I clean on the day I say...i.e all my work is scheduled for a particular day....so those who are 8 weekly expect it 8 weekly....and for the most part I have been able to satisfy this with the exception of 3 days of work that have had to be re-scheduled due to 2 days weather & 1 day vech issues.
I like to think if it as an agreement between the custy and I...they close all windows/allow access via a gate and I turn up on that day and clean....
Cheers
Dave.
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I have set my stall out that I clean on the day I say...i.e all my work is scheduled for a particular day....so those who are 8 weekly expect it 8 weekly....and for the most part I have been able to satisfy this with the exception of 3 days of work that have had to be re-scheduled due to 2 days weather & 1 day vech issues.
I like to think if it as an agreement between the custy and I...they close all windows/allow access via a gate and I turn up on that day and clean....
Cheers
Dave.
i find that if by chance i get ahead with the work ?which is not very often,i bring it forward a bit .
no one has ever minded,
best regards
mike
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The first day i ever went window cleaning was with my uncle ,i was 9 years old & all i did was carry a bucket round. At 17 i bought my first round, needless to say im doing well. Over the years had 7 lads, rented work out, but now i have 2 lads and seem to earn alot more as im ontop of things more.
The work i love is terraced houses, 1 up 1 down and i charge £4.00 - £4.50 & if theyre nextdoor to eachother you can earn some excellent money.
So the £30 per hour is a definate, just work it out how many terraces could you clean per hr ?
£30 is a correct hourly rate.
If im asked what my hourly rate is for the day, im £30 phr & thats me cleaning traditional, wfp or in mewp.
If im pricing individual large houses per hr, then i would be charging around double that.
;)
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Pricing does depend a lot on area... It also depends on how confident you are when you give the quote to the customer... If you come across nervous (thinking that perhaps your quote sounds too high) the potential customer will sense this and probably refuse the price.
At the moment I don't need anymore work as I recently let my helper go... So when I go to quote I always now quote high.
I went to a new housing development (which contains 8 new houses) the other day to do a quote... They are all 3 bed detatched houses, but no bigger than a normal 3 bed semi... I quoted them £20 for an 8 weekly clean... They were fine with the price.
The day I turned up to clean the windows 3 neighbours saw me cleaning them and also asked for a quote... I quoted £20 for each one and they all accepted!
High prices can be acheived. You just need to be confident that you can get them!
Andy
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Yes its possible, i worked 3 hours today and earnt £131. Im not bragging as im not like that, but they was all small £6 houses. Mind you not all days are like that, wish they was.
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Yes its possible, i worked 3 hours today and earnt £131. Im not bragging as im not like that, but they was all small £6 houses. Mind you not all days are like that, wish they was.
You did 22 houses in 3 hours??? Thats good going!
Andy
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If he did 22 @ £6 then someone paid him a quid short ;D
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that is some going it takes me average 8 hrs to do 20 houses at 6 quid,
i found in wales that cleaners are charging 4 or 5 pound for houses some have 17 window frames with 3 windows in most.they started at 7 pond but just put them up to 8 and 9 and only lost 1 :D
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my husbands work varies. sometimes he does houses all day long and he will end up with about £15 a hour but he has some commercial work where he gets £50 an hour. we are in north west too where prices are supposed to be lower than down south
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Interesting that this thread started in 2003 with talk of £30 an hour - 5 years later I wonder what the average earnings per hour for a self employed window cleaner are now???
It does depend on area, speed and organisation I think.
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I was earning £12 per hour cleaning windows in west london, but that was in 1991 i imagine i could earn a lot more to-day.
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I try to earn at least £20 per hour but there are some days you can earn more, depends on job
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Its the same old complaint I make again.
Unless it is considered to be helpful, why resurrect oldposts on 2 occasions?
I make the mistake of not reading when the post originated and only on the last page realise that is so old!
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I generaly sharge for an average house with 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window at the front and 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window with a pation door at the back about £5-6 if that same house had a conservatory then I'd charge about £7-8 (remembering I wouldnt be able to do one of the upstairs windows). I live just south of Birmingham. I generally do about £15 per hour on average with the odd f*g break hear and there. Does this sound about right or am I undercharging (I really don't see that customers would pay any more though).
Hi Paul, what would you charge me for a first floor flat, 2 front and 2 back?
I'm in church hill.
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Yes its possible, i worked 3 hours today and earnt £131. Im not bragging as im not like that, but they was all small £6 houses. Mind you not all days are like that, wish they was.
hey mate if ya worked only 3 hours how mainy £6 houses did you do in thet time
jay
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Yes its possible, i worked 3 hours today and earnt £131. Im not bragging as im not like that, but they was all small £6 houses. Mind you not all days are like that, wish they was.
hey mate if ya worked only 3 hours how mainy £6 houses did you do in thet time
= 21 3/4 houses
jay
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all i can say is dont believe everything you read on forums ;)
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Yes its possible, i worked 3 hours today and earnt £131. Im not bragging as im not like that, but they was all small £6 houses. Mind you not all days are like that, wish they was.
hey mate if ya worked only 3 hours how mainy £6 houses did you do in thet time
jay
less than 3 mins a house non stop,what a load of bull ;D ;D
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hi guys i'm a cleaner in west yorks using wfp on residential work working on my own £30 is easy acheivable working with the lad today working 8 till 2 we did 58 houses earning £392 which is over £60 an hour commercial work is more i know a lot of cleaners and there all roughly the same.
hope this helps!
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£30 an hour, is that all? I dont live in the south east, do an excellent job and easily make £40 an hour. Some work its £70 an hour! ;D Get a reach and wash system, You won't regret it.
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I live in the southeast and I charge around the £27.00 per hour. It works out that way over the course of an 8 hour day. However with more and more people losing their jobs and taking up window cleaning to fill in time while looking for another job the price per hour has dropped alittle as this time last year was earning more.
Your hourly rate should not be less then £25.00 per hour if its your only job !
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Icharge £15 for a standard semi , i liv in west london maybe that makes a difference.
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I look to take £40-50 an hour - however 30p in every pound comes to me directly as a wage and the rest 70p go to the business for supplies, new equipment, insurance, marketing all that type of thing.
So if your talking actually earning £30 an hour id need to be taking about £100 an hour.
So all those bragging about how much they "earn" an hour you really need to take a step back and work out your costs first.
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hi we work in the midlands and charge on average £10 for an average house but obvioulsy more the bigger the house, there are two of us that work together and most times we can reach £30 per hour but if you work that out it is £15 per hour each. we don't do anything less than £10 it's not worth it and we only average 4 days a week so we have always got time to catch up as it rains so often ;D
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I look to take £40-50 an hour - however 30p in every pound comes to me directly as a wage and the rest 70p go to the business for supplies, new equipment, insurance, marketing all that type of thing.
So if your talking actually earning £30 an hour id need to be taking about £100 an hour.
So all those bragging about how much they "earn" an hour you really need to take a step back and work out your costs first.
sounds like alot of overheads mate......
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On compact work a tenner a throw 4 n hour is 40quid so there you go ,most ov us on ere easlily clean an house in 15,mins an thats wiping the sills with conservatory these figures can be achieved yes
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most of my quotes get no reply . but the ones that do, make £30 per hour possible.quote high and wait for well paying work
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if you price right,then yeh it pretty easy to get £30 an hour,jus depends on what u want to earn an hour once youve considered all your overheads ;D
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i live north west england. and on some rounds i can be making £30 an hour.
I think its all down to pricing a job correctly, and speed of work but not comprimising quality of work.
cheers, ryan
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Im South East and average £20 an hour.
I say average because I can earn £25-30 an hour doing commercial.
However when you take in weather, hols etc the av is £15.
Have started to look at how my round is organised and the prices charged because I feel that some dire changes are needed to increase turnover and cleaning compacity.
Quite the running around which has started to creap in again.
I have a mate who is trad. He is fast but has been doing it all his life. His av turnover is £34-37,000 year.
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£12-£15 is my average an hour when working. god if i was on £30 an hour id be a million aire in 10 years.
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there seems such a disparity in the trade, in ireland, where i live, in Dublin to be precise, the average semi is 25euro taking around 20 minutes, the cost of living is higher here of course, and taxes as well but a normal years income would be 60,000 euro, we have all the same problems here as uk weather customer apathy etc but we make a great income also i am a very cheap window cleaner.
ps please dontmove to ireland the market is very small ;)
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sorry forgot to mention im part time at this also
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there seems such a disparity in the trade, in ireland, where i live, in Dublin to be precise, the average semi is 25euro taking around 20 minutes, the cost of living is higher here of course, and taxes as well but a normal years income would be 60,000 euro, we have all the same problems here as uk weather customer apathy etc but we make a great income also i am a very cheap window cleaner.
ps please dontmove to ireland the market is very small ;)
Funnily enough I am considering such a move!
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Amazing how much earnings have changed since this thread started. ;D
I'm not on half what some are, and I try to do 30 p/h most hours...if not they go up or get replaced.
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its between £30-£60 per hr in south wales, thats with wfp though and a one man band. i think my 1st year i averaged £35 phr over the year, but i do 8 week cleans so charge twice as much.
but im seeing a few newbies every month, so might start seeing a lot of work being undercut unfortunately. >:(
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Hi all,
I live in Kent and all my residential round work is WFP. Any new residential work that i quote is always based on time taken to do the job and i base it on £30.00 per hour. I dont always ge the job but would rather not do the work than do begrudgingly underpriced.
My best residentail earner is 5 x 3 storey 1970s town houses that i charge £25.00 each for (£125.00) and last monday i completed them at an easy pace in 3 hours. So that is £41.66 per hour. But part of the reason is they all next to each other so can park in one spot. They are cleaned every 7-8 weeks.
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£40/£50 4 me ;)
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I vary from £15/h in my own town cus i stupidly did not know what to charge when i started, two villages over i earn double that.
£30 is fair
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I generaly sharge for an average house with 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window at the front and 2 upstairs and 1 downstairs window with a pation door at the back about £5-6 if that same house had a conservatory then I'd charge about £7-8 (remembering I wouldnt be able to do one of the upstairs windows). I live just south of Birmingham. I generally do about £15 per hour on average with the odd f*g break hear and there. Does this sound about right or am I undercharging (I really don't see that customers would pay any more though).
HI Central
I have only read to this post so if I repeat what others might have said then I am sorry.
I live in Kings Norton and I cover the whole of the West Midlands area, I have even clients in Barnt Green - Alverchurch and Redditch.
My Prices are for a basic house (7 windows) £10 with the 1st clean charged at double.
If they have extra windows or access issues then the price goes up.
My commercial rate is even higher.
My average domestic is £25 and I achieve over £45 per working hour.
These are not bullpoop figures but fact.
If you want help in building your business to achieve this then call me and I see what I can do.
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there seems such a disparity in the trade, in ireland, where i live, in Dublin to be precise, the average semi is 25euro taking around 20 minutes, the cost of living is higher here of course, and taxes as well but a normal years income would be 60,000 euro, we have all the same problems here as uk weather customer apathy etc but we make a great income also i am a very cheap window cleaner.
ps please dontmove to ireland the market is very small ;)
at 6 quid a pint in dublin i wont be moving there any time soon ;D
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£12-£15 is my average an hour when working. god if i was on £30 an hour id be a million aire in 10 years.
i was earning £12 ph in 1991 and that was trad.were do you live
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hi all i live in kent and i charge around £1 per unit and i can earn £30 hour no problem so yes it can be done good luck everyone
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Like i said, alot do, but i know that i havnt been going long and at the moment, my houses arnt next door to each other, so i have to spend time packing up and driving.
im the same mate i start tomorrow morning and the weather aint in my favour, but ill wack the waterproofs on and show im genuine and relible. word of mouth is the best advertising you can get! i live in hope to get 100 custys a month and im happy