Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: sf on January 05, 2008, 09:00:05 pm
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hi guys just starting out on my own.can anyone tell me the average price for a 3 bed semi in south wales?was thinking of charging £8 per house or do you think this is to much?been window cleaning for 16 years for a company as an employee.all our work is contract(commercial and domestic for housing associations care homes etc)so any feedback on this matter would be gratefully recieved.
thanks dave.
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hi
good luck dont be affraid to charge what you feel is fair. this may be more than is being charged locally
£12.00 is my charge for a 3 bed semi but i am in the midlands
tony
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Good luck Dave you will be much better off .......eventually. I'm not in wales but just about everyone is too cheap when they first start. Do not be afraid. Luke comes from wales, read his posts.
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hi guys just starting out on my own.can anyone tell me the average price for a 3 bed semi in south wales?was thinking of charging £8 per house or do you think this is to much?been window cleaning for 16 years for a company as an employee.all our work is contract(commercial and domestic for housing associations care homes etc)so any feedback on this matter would be gratefully recieved.
thanks dave.
Dave my advice is if you have worked for another company is this: dont lower your price just because thats more than you got paid before (you will regret it later)
Mark them words they are good ones ;)
Ian
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Dave,
Welcome !
Really depends on a lot of factors, location and number of windows, ease of reach, time taken to clean etc.. You will get 3 bed semis that are easier and harder to clean than others.
I work in Northern Scotland, so prices will be quite similar.
When I first started, I looked at how much I wanted to earn in an hour.
If you can do a 3 bed semi in 20 minutes, then 3 of these will earn you £24.00 an hour, or 2 at £16.00 an hour. Given that you probably won't have all your round next door to each other, you will have to allow for travelling time.
I work at around £20.00 per hour and can do an 'average' 3 bed in 20 minutes. Given this £8.00 does seem about bang on.
I can do the same house in 15 minutes with wfp though !
Hope this is of some help,
Dave.
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I'd aim for £9 for a 3 bedder. Maybe try pushing £10?
Bare in mind that there are more wfpers around now so depressing prices.
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My mother lives in Caerwent.
£10 there and you'd need to be a good salesman to get it.
3 storey houses in Newport are getting done for £12
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Good post, and what I was going to say really.
You could get up to £10 in Chepstow area.
In Newport or Cwmbran, more like £5.
Totally dependant on area.
Avoid the scabby areas and you'll be fine.
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like said on previous posts depends on area ,up in the valleys .some will pay £8 most wont . but like said earlier .stick to at least £8 im up in valleys n i made mistake of charging 5 to 6£ untill i joined this forum i soon wised up .good luck mate u have our support
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Where abouts are you Tacky?
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waunlwyd oppisite the old garden festival ebbw vale
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Total respect to you mate for trying to make a go of it up there.
Origionally I'm from the Blackwood area and no way would I go back there and try and make a living out of window cleaning.
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THANKS NIEL MY BIGGEST MISTAKE WAS STAYING UP HERE i should have been a bit more patient . n gone down abergavenny way n built up my round .better payers down thier . about 2 months ago some one was canvassing the valleys . i think they said they were co 2 OR SOME THING they tried diwn the posh houses on the garden festival site. they were after £12 FOR 6 WINDOWS N CONSERV quite a lot of them told them to pee off
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thanks everyone for your response.
all of your advice very much appreciated
thanks dave
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Dave,
I live in the same area as Ian_Giles and Squeaks (South East Wales (though actually I live just over the border in England)), and the average price is about £8 to £10, but there's a few lads who charge more and some who charge less.
The year before last, I met an old guy who was charging £4.00 for some large semi's that involved NINE CLIMBS OF THE LADDER! I tried to give him some work and he was really shocked I was charging £8.50 for the same street he was charing £4.00 for; and my prices were cheap for these houses!
My average price for a 3 bed semi is about the £8.50 mark ranging to £15.00.
Where abouts in South Wales are you?
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Mmm, I do quite a few in Caerwent and I don't have one under £12.00, in fact I am charging £4.00 per house more on one estate than one of my competitors.
Another guy I know goes all over South Wales and gets top prices regardless of location.
Don't price up by the hour, price up per unit.
Understand what you consider to be a single window, we all know some windows are huge, well break in down so that you are counting up in units.
Have a set fee per unit.
Mine for instance is £1.00 per window (or unit...if you see what i mean?)
If you are going to be trad only, don't forget that georgian and leaded windows take longer.
With a Georgian window with average sized panes I'd consider 12 panes to equal one unit, but I would charge £1.50 per unit.
You get the idea.
It is far, far better to estimate rather than guestimate.
Also of course, the higher you go, the more you charge per unit.
If you charge by the hour, getting at the real figure isn't that easy, it's no point thinking that you can do an average semi in 20 minutes, therefore you can do 3 an hour, you will rarely have hit, say, £24.00 per hour over a 5 day week if you decide to just charge £8.00 per house.
you won't work 8 solid hours a week, your average day will be about 6 hours or so, and yes, I know many work longer hours than that, I do myself for instance, but by and large most will only do about 6 hours a day, and some of that will be lost in traveling between accounts, writing out invoices, tea breaks, bad weather, various holidays and so on and so forth.
Arriving at what you REALLY want to earn an hour is not easy, and don't forget, there is a big difference between earnings and wages.
What you 'earn' per hour is not your personal income, it's your business income.
so as well as factoring in the 'actual' amount of time you are going to be up the ladder cleaning windows per day, you also have to factor in your business costs.
Not an easy thing to do when you are starting out, but just as a ballpark figure, you need to allow at least 5k for your business costs, don't kid yourself that it is only a set of ladders, a bucket and your tools...You can't do the job without a vehicle, and this is a real cost....
The very best of luck to you, as an experienced window cleaner you will know the job inside out, but it is vital you get your pricing strategy right!!!!
Ian
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I dont have any 3 bed houses at all on my round.
But a bungalow done every 4wks would be a £10 up.
A house 4wky £15 up
A house 8wky £20 up
Roy
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im from pontypridd.though looking to target mainly cardiff area
as £8 per house should be quite easy to achieve there.as for
hourly rate at £8 per house anything up to £48 as i can
clean 6 average semis including frames using traditional
per hour as average 8-10 mins per house.after initial clean. just going to be a case of building a compact round(realise it is going to take time and not as easy as some think. building up the rounds the hard bit)
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Good speed, very good in fact, but don't base your prices on how fast you can clean a house!
It will take you years to achieve a round so compact you can hammer out 6 houses an hour, day in day out.
Don't plan on it happening anytime soon.
And don't think of generic prices for houses! It really is a big, big mistake.
houses vary so much even in one street, new windows, old windows, access, conservatories and so on.
It doesn't matter if you can knock out 6 houses an hour, when you are pricing up you are still miles better off having a proper method for pricing up, and also to have a minimum price too.
your average window cleaner will do roughly 3 houses an hour, base your prices on this, and if you really can knock out 6 houses an hour then you are going to be laughing all the way to the bank.
Ian
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I have friends that live in the Canon Lane Estate in Caerwent, do you cover in there Ian?
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thanks for your advice ian.was thinking of £8 as minimum also£1 per window if window count equates to more than 8 per house.just find it hard to justify more than £8 for 10 mins work.realise its going to take 5-10 years to get to the point where ill be doing 6 houses per hour day in day out.
probablly be wfp by then way things are going with hse.cant possibly see how wfp could be quicker than i am at the moment.probablly of slowed down a bit by then as 34 now.just have to see how it goes only time will tel
dave
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Helen, I've a few accounts in the estate that is last on the left as you head towards Caldicot, God knows what the name of the estate is though!
I'm picking them up this week, I'll take note of the name of the estate.
Dave, on a small house there won't be a lot of difference between WFP and trad, unless of course it is either leaded or Georgian.
The larger the account the bigger the time differential, I have some 3 storey accounts that took up to 5 hours trad, WFP = one and a half hours.
Ignore WFP until you have built up a decent sized round, but have your customers prepared from day one that you will most probably be changing your system and method once you are well established.
Have a minimum price of £8.00 if you like, then adjust it by a £1.00 per window after that.
In other words, if a customer only has 3 or 4 windows, you STILL charge your minimum!
The temptation to go in cheap to initially build up your round is incredibly hard to resist because you really need the work...do your best to resist that temptation!!
Ian
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I dont have any 3 bed houses at all on my round.
But a bungalow done every 4wks would be a £10 up.
A house 4wky £15 up
A house 8wky £20 up
Roy
no 3 beds at all :o
you must have a round in a very posh area I would say 70% of mine are 3 bed. As would I guess mosts people rounds are.
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I can vouch for Roy, our area's overlap, and yes, most of his work is drive betweens and they are mostly posh areas, he has a round to be envied I promise you that.
Ian
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I can vouch for Roy, our area's overlap, and yes, most of his work is drive betweens and they are mostly posh areas, he has a round to be envied I promise you that.
Ian
I was in no way saying I did not believe Roy, I think it is great when someone does well, and anyone with a mind set like me would just aspire to do better I dont do jealous I just try harder ;D, Roy........... What your secret or is it just years of trimming ?
Ian
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, Roy........... What your secret or is it just years of trimming ?
Ian
Just as you say years and years of sorting the wheat from the chaff, keep taking on new and better.
Roy