Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: davids3511 on November 12, 2007, 01:51:31 pm
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Starting out at this job is so frustrating!! I started last August with a few customers WFP. I made the jump from my old job to WC about 2 months ago and hit the leafletting hard. I now have about 170 customers, mostly 3 bed semis. I just cannot get more then 6 done in a day, all first cleans at the moment and am now about a week behind. I cannot start before 9.30 as I need to drop my son to school and with the dark nights, I am finishing at about 4.30.
I know it is slow to start with but I just seem to be swimming through tracle. Please tell me it gets better sometime soon.
I am using a backpack by the way
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Ok, It does get better and quicker. Back tonight.
Please describe how you clean a house.
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Slowly, by the sounds of it ;D Sorry, that :-\ doesn't help. Dave sounds to me like you're takin way too much care on initial cleans. Be precise,be thorough. But don't give a 3 bed semi any more than 15 minutes.......20 max. That should only take ya to 2 hours for 6 houses. But it will get better bud. We all take a solemn oath on that ;)
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Jeff is right, (and Dino) you will soon be able to do 6 standard semis comfortably in under 2 hours...very comfortably...even if they are all drive betweens.
And as Jeff also went on to say, let us know your method!
Ian
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I also use a backpack, and i'm just filling out of a tank so takes quite long, first time round i did all tops, then all bottoms, to wait for everything to stop dripping.
Today i have found that every house, it's quicker to do a window thats not affected by the dripping (conserv, side windows etc) or just wait.
What took me 6.5 hours on initial cleans and all tops and then all bottoms, took me about 5.5 Hours, including an extra £9.00 clean i've took on, should be even faster next time.
I would seriously advise going out for a day with someone as it really helps.
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My second day WFP today (trolley).
Took me from 9AM to 2pm to do 10 cleans inc 1 first clean. This includes travelling time, lugging the trolley / water barrels in and out of the car, setting up, explaining to the customer the system (if they asked)
I suspect it will get quicker and quicker :)
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Hi
it does get quicker. i started wfp in June, todays round i done 5 large houses and i mean large, 4 smaller ones and 2 bungalows trad , toook 6 hours,
i think i spend to much time on mine, i could be quicker, but i like to make sure i dont miss anything,
as for dripping and waiting,,,,,,, i do all tops first then come back to the lower ones starting from where i started the tops,
bear with it bud, my first cleans were a nightmare, wanted to chuck trolley in the bin after a week.
Haydn
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Ok, It does get better and quicker. Back tonight.
Please describe how you clean a house.
For starters this is what I mean by a standard 3 bed semi - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-15984127.rsp?pa_n=14&tr_t=buy
I start at the front, on no 2 on the backpack and clean the top frame and then the glass and rest of frame. I then rinse off. Once I have done that, I will start on the bottom and then more of the same round the back and sides. I find I can wash the frame and glass in no time, it is the rinsing that takes ages. However, I very rarely have a problem with spotting or runs.
I am starting to do some 2nd cleans in volume now and it is far faster. I have them down to about 30 mins, just I have loads of 1st cleans still to do and it is getting me both down and behind.
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You need to earn for xmas, maybe put some of the 1st cleans off till the new year. tell them your booked solid. RU 4 weekly or 8 ?
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Hi
Monthly. Afraid that if I put them off I will loose them.
David
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I hate first cleans. I did a horrible one today- the frames had oxidized, the glass was filthy, the sills were stained and after going round twice the glass was still terrible. The half-wit of a customer had sprayed them in the past with a hosepipe and we live in a very hard water area. >:(
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David, your not far from me....your welcome to come out with me for a day...i do 20 - 25 a day, drop my lad of at school and am back to pick him up, actually i usually fininsh about 2ish!!!...let me know mate
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Split them up over the next 4 weeks. But give them an approx date to keep them quiet. Concentrate on your xmas money not trying to please everybody.
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David, your not far from me....your welcome to come out with me for a day...i do 20 - 25 a day, drop my lad of at school and am back to pick him up, actually i usually fininsh about 2ish!!!...let me know mate
Would love to, but maybe not a full day, I am far enough behind as it is. Where are you and when would be good for you?
Thanks
David
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i am the same at the moment- i done 4 houses in 4 hours! flaming took me ages- they were quite big- i was aiming for about 15 per day this week, but today i was slow- i made an effort to do a good job, but i dont know what its turnt out like
i thought id go the trolley way- made my own custom built trolley- looked good at first now- I hate it!
getting in and out of the car, changing containers, wheeling around, untangling hose, not a good idea, im going to get a hose and floor mounted reel asap. then a box in the back and reel the hose out easy, so much fiddling about with the trolley.
and i had new customers - who werent in and left theyre back gate locked!
and i left my list of customers at home!
hopefully it will speed up this week though.
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Taking me about 30 mins on setting one though as i find i save alot of time by not filling up every 2 minutes..
Im the same to i probably spend 10 minutes of the 30 (inc packing up, extending poles etc) just rinsing.
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Whatever setting you can save water by making the jets smaller. I use 4 1mm jets water goes further, windows just as clean.
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Anytime dave, but not fridays. I drop my lad of at school in worsley, so would be best to meet there.
When you want to, give me you e-mail and i'll arrange it with ya.
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David, snap his hand off it will save you weeks.
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You need to analyse your time to see where the time is going. With WFP its easy to waste a lot of time setting up and packing up. I know because I was spending more time faffing about than actually cleaning windows.
Treat it as a proper time and motion exercise and then target areas / practices that need to be improved and find ways to do it quicker.
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You are too slow at the minute but you will get quicker with practice & experience.
However, one thing i will say is to take the clean times some people on here quote with a pinch of salt. people naturaly quote there best ever time, in ideal circumstances or what they think it should take. e.g. one quote above - 9am to 2pm = 25 houses which equates to 12 mins per house. this IMO is unrealistic & does not give a true reflection of real life occurences i.e. plant pots, garden furniture, dog turds, setting up-taking down, knocking for payment, a quick aknowlagement to the custy, moving to next job etc etc.
You will get to know soon enough what is a realistic target & what isn't through your own experience, just don't go out tomorrow thinking that you should be doing a house every 12 minutes ;)
tony
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My target is to be able to get 12 done in a 6 hour day. If I can do that I will be happy (for a while).
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you should b doing 1 house in 1/2 hr at the very slowest, even on 1st cleans
turn your trolley into a van mount best thing i ever did saves loads of time
by the time i change barrels i cuc have had 1/2 a house cleaned
you wont regret going van mount
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i agree, i need to mount my hose in the vehicle- get rid of this trolley idea-
im sure it took me atleast 30mins per job driving to next customer, opening up- getting the trolley out, sorting the house out- changing barrels etc...
i need to get one of those 100m wall mounted metal hose reels, and use my vehicle as the trolley.
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It does get quicker. I just did some work today for the third time wfp and finished it about 1 & 3/4 hrs earlier than the first time. So I pulled some work forward form tomorrow before the rain comes. This with a freedom trolley and changing water barrels. Some of this is down to not having to do a heavy clean on the frames anymore, just maintainace cleans and the rest is working out the best routine.
My water consumption has dropped considerably too. Doing tops only wfp and tradding the bottoms, I only used 100ltrs compared to 175ltrs on the first go round.
My round is very compact which helps of course. All of my work is within 1 square mile and on one estate.
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David, your not far from me....your welcome to come out with me for a day...i do 20 - 25 a day, drop my lad of at school and am back to pick him up, actually i usually fininsh about 2ish!!!...let me know mate
Would love to, but maybe not a full day, I am far enough behind as it is. Where are you and when would be good for you?
Thanks
David
I'm sure you won't regret it. I was very slow with WFP at first. When I was shown how quickly it can be done I was astonished. Mind you, those first cleans do take a lot longer I found. I normally charge 50% more for them but go around twice. The trouble is, you can't really do this with an existing customer whose house you previously cleaned the trad way. I found it also helps if you use a van mounted system rather than a trolley or backpack. I know some people swear by them but I found that they slowed me down.
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looking at the link of the 3 bed semi i do a lot like them . i usually do 4 a hour . like you 1st cleans were taking a long time but after a few cleans things started to go faster . wfp was the best move i made but at 1st i thought it was a bad move . stick with it mate and you will speed up .
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You'll definately get quicker but as quick as some of the posts on here....who knows?
I've upped my speed but still nowhere as fast as 4 x 3 bed houses in an hour, I did go at that speed on my own house and to be honest it was poor, slowing down made it a good job so I follow that with my customers.
I'm not naive enough to start I do a perfect job everytime but I haven't had any problems as such.
Do any of you super quick speedy WFPers get called back or lose any customers?
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davids3511, that house on the link....what are you charging for that one or similar properties? :) perhaps you are underpriced and that is why it all seems fruitless at the moment
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I know how you are feeling at the mo, I am doing it to, Some days I am quicker (rarely) would I change it no way, in time I know I will be quicker, I am putting it down to starting again, had the same with trad where to put ladder etc etc, this is the same with wfp where to start what angle etc etc. and remember everyhouse you do for upto 3 times is going to be like a first clean, I myself do the first 3 cleans as some say on the first time, I clean everything little extra time now will save alot next time. I can see that light at the end of the tunnel and I am only half way through my rounds at the mo, cant wait to get back to the start and see, (I need a time machine).
keep plugging away, all will be good if you want it bad enough ;D.
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dave you have been out a number of times with me now .your doing everything right and getting good results but you are rinsing to much and that means spending to long and to much water on each window .but your not getting any complaints and i think you are getting a bit faster so dont worry
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davids3511, that house on the link....what are you charging for that one or similar properties? :) perhaps you are underpriced and that is why it all seems fruitless at the moment
Hi Helen
I would charge £12.00 for that house. Any more and I simply don't get the business.
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dave you have been out a number of times with me now .your doing everything right and getting good results but you are rinsing to much and that means spending to long and to much water on each window .but your not getting any complaints and i think you are getting a bit faster so dont worry
Cheers Dave, just need to grit the teeth I suppose.
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It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really. It's like with any new job. At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it. After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit. A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day. If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes. I'm not referring to first cleans though. I do still take a fair bit longer over those. I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.
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It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really. It's like with any new job. At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it. After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit. A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day. If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes. I'm not referring to first cleans though. I do still take a fair bit longer over those. I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.
Gotta be at least 8 flat window in that pic, 2 fair sized bays, 1 patio doors, 1 porch and you say 10 mins with a bit of effort, I really need to speed up :o reckon on 30 mins here.
Is that frames, sills, collecting etc? ie pulling up to driving away?
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It's the rinsing that takes the time. With a higher flow rate and working quicker you will get through a lot more work.
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Hi guys,
second day at wfp today- well half day i only started at 1pm!
i think i am slowly speeding up. Best thing i done was to get rid of my trolley, i mounted the pump varistream and battery in a plastic box, with a flick toggle switch on it, and have 50 meters microbore on ahose reel fixed in the back, bolted down. Much quicker just pulling the hose out and reeling it in.
Still slow but getting better i think, i usually squeegee off the downstairs windows (unless leaded) if they in, if not i leave it all wet. The poles working great.
i can only carry 150 litres of water atm max- in 25 litre containers.
i used up almost 25 litres on one large house- for my water to last i need to use 10 litres per house-
Im aiming to get allot more done tommorow though. starting at 6:30 -7am hopefully about 15 a day. Nice seeing the money flowing in.
I really need to save on the water i guess, i started using a microbore flow controller, but it started leaking after 30mins! so i just used the quick connect fittings.
many of my customers have lead all over the windows in diamond shapes, so wfp is much easier.
When cleaning yesterday, wfp - a lady walking her dog asked me how much to do her place one off- so today i was cleaning her windows, and her husband said he wants it done every month, then another guy from across the road came upto me to ask me to do theirs on a monthly basis, a new customer from a new customer. Excellent-
i can see myself speeding up, and gaining many more customers.
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It's the rinsing that takes the time. With a higher flow rate and working quicker you will get through a lot more work.
I use streamline lite 5mm internal hose (really soft,light and very flexible) up inside my waterfed poles with 8mm minibore fittings, a 8mm 'Y' piece and 2mm jets and turn my waterflow up to about 12 o'clock on the varistream. The waterflow is really fast and saves a lot of time waiting for a decent amount of water to come through the brush head onto the glass thus very quick scrubbing & rinsing times :)
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david read my post "victim of success" i can almost guarantee you will find yourself in the same position in a few months. i felt exactly the same when i switched to wfp worried about losing customers,problems with diy system,no immediate increase in speed,massive use of water compared to trad really did think about flogging all the gear on ebay and going back to bucket now iam onto clean six on my regular round and have picked up several new customers without trying and am now going to have to drum up more trade or take fridays off every week.In total i lost two customers because of the switch but have picked up 14 new ones with no effort so stick with it man really one day it will all start to click and then you will start to fly round
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It's just a matter of practicing and being shown if necessary really. It's like with any new job. At first you have to think about everything you do before you do it. After a while you start doing those thingsa by habit. A bit longer and you start to find a few shortcuts.
That house in the link I could do pretty comfortably in 15 minutes - maybe 20 if I was feeling really lazy or having an off day. If I was putting in reasonable effort, I could do it in 10 - 12 minutes. I'm not referring to first cleans though. I do still take a fair bit longer over those. I don't mind these days as I charge more for them.
Gotta be at least 8 flat window in that pic, 2 fair sized bays, 1 patio doors, 1 porch and you say 10 mins with a bit of effort, I really need to speed up :o reckon on 30 mins here.
Is that frames, sills, collecting etc? ie pulling up to driving away?
I was referring to a maintenance clean. I don't do all frames on a maintenance clean except for now and then as required. I do brush the sills off though. Of course it would need to be a customer who was either out or one who has the money or cheque already to hand. But I could unload, clean, and load up in 10 minutes if everything was ideal - and the job would be OK too. However, I will admit that I wouldn't fancy sustaining that pace all day long.
I reckon 20 minutes would be a bit of a plod but I'm happy working that way at times.
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Cheers for all the advisea dn encouragment. Did my first full day of second cleans and have them down to 30 minutes. Fell much better about it all now.