Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jeff1 on February 16, 2008, 07:54:13 pm
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Today I cashed some gift vouchers I had for Christmas and decided I wanted a wireless cctv system for my guttering work, I got myself twin colour cameras and a 2 way receiver + switcher kit, and then I got myself a 9'' colour flat screen TV to complete the kit.
I Set it up today and had a play around, I was able to see everything in the gutters from the ground. (boy mine need cleaning out )
The method in my madness is to see were any blockages are and maybe show the customer, it will also save me any time by not having to clean any side of a house that is already clean, I have had many properties were one side never even needed cleaning out, so time saved is more in my pocket.
I have seen a supplier selling cctv systems for guttering costing a 4 figure sum, ok mine doesn't have a video recorder, but for less than £100 I could buy a small video recorder if I want one?
Ok here is a rundown on the cost of mine
2 wireless colour cameras + 1, 2way receiver + switcher £99
1, 9'' flat screen TV with video input £69
Total cost £168
What a saving from a 4 figure sum and it does the same job, and in my own mind look very professional.
Anyone else with a cctv system for the work? And what are your thoughts on a cctv system looking professional? After all they stick them down drains, so why not use them for guttering work?
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If you are selling a franchise Im in ;D
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Jeff Brimble does I think, I dont do many gutters myself, Luke
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Would be brilliant to show potential customer a view of there dirty gutters ! And you are going to clean that dirt out ! Think this is an untapped market ;D
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If you are selling a franchise Im in ;D
Go to Argos and maplin and start your own franchise 8) ;D ;D
Jeff Brimble does I think, I dont do many gutters myself, Luke
Never heard Jeff mention anything about cctv, I didn't know he did guttering work?
Why don't you do guttering work Luke? good work for rainy days and good money.
Would be brilliant to show potential customer a view of there dirty gutters ! And you are going to clean that dirt out ! Think this is an untapped market ;D
Your right Jonah ;D I do loads of guttering work for my regulars, but my plan was to show those custys who don't have it done, live pictures of there bunged up guttering, I think if they actually see the crud up there they may well go for a clean.
Has to be good for business. ;)
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not untapped I'm affraid:
http://www.andwat.co.uk/acatalog/NEW_PRODUCT_RANGE_-_WFP_GUTTER_CLEANING_SYSTEM.html
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not untapped I'm affraid:
http://www.andwat.co.uk/acatalog/NEW_PRODUCT_RANGE_-_WFP_GUTTER_CLEANING_SYSTEM.html
£375 + the Vat ;D I have already made a saving of £207 on the gear and about another £60 on the Vat 8)
Buy it your self guys, just look at the savings ;)
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Meant doing the job ! If I was to market the idea I would offer an inspection of the gutters for £5 . Then if they saw the condition of the said offending gutters would quote for the job . Simple ;D
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We could with guys like you RWC !
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If its an existing customer and you are already there the £5 is ok (catching them in is another thing) But if not £20 minimum charge. Heres my basic reply to Jeff from another forum.
Did something similar Jeff went to maplins last summer and bought A baby alert col cam and 2.5" screen for £50 Burns batteries like crazy but does the job. Got the vac gear 1/2 sorted and have c/f poles and a "macerator"etc ready to go. During the process I found the fastest way to inspect most of the gutters is a big wing mirror on an adjustable elbow. Its very fast.
Then I changed my mind
Decided to stick to wfping because its so much easier (lazy)and I know what I am doing.
Just lots of ideas on the back burner now.
But Good Luck and Yes it does look and will in time impress architects, punters and H&S guys. Try to get on your local council list, thats where the current money is, but it takes time to build any new business. I got zero response from a few local ads I placed.
ps I suspect most of the gutter guys will keep mum as they are doing very well.
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ps I suspect most of the gutter guys will keep mum as they are doing very well.
Enough said .
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Never thought about the charge for inspection 8) Good idea guy's, ;) the only time I'll waiver that is, if I approach an existing customer with the view of getting more work.
what else you have to think about is when you do an inspection weather they accept or not, you will always have another customer who knows what you offer and we all know how customers talk?
I could always add the inspection and clean on the back of my tickets I put through there doors?
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It is very interesting and telling that some window cleaners feel our DVR systems are expensive.
We have a wide range of customers in many industries including national security for our patent pending camera units and not one has thought our units expensive, many small companies purchase several at a time!
For example Drain cleaning companies buy them from us because they are less than a fifth of the price of the units they had previously bought, with the benifit that our units hold 150 hours of video which is downloadable to a pc from which DVDs can be burned and given to clients showing surveys and before and after works have been carried out.
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Does it take 150 hours to do the vid?
Let's see, window cleaners @ £25 p/h, = equals = 150x£25 =MILLIONAIRE!
(£3750 to view gutters).
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Hi John
The DVR unit will hold 150 hours of video so it can hold thousands of surveys and jobs if wanted, or they can be downloaded as required.
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It is very interesting and telling that some window cleaners feel our DVR systems are expensive.
We have a wide range of customers in many industries including national security for our patent pending camera units and not one has thought our units expensive, many small companies purchase several at a time!
For example Drain cleaning companies buy them from us because they are less than a fifth of the price of the units they had previously bought, with the benifit that our units hold 150 hours of video which is downloadable to a pc from which DVDs can be burned and given to clients showing surveys and before and after works have been carried out.
I have seen your system Glyn and I must admit it is very impressive, I do feel its aimed at the bigger pro's maybe Omnipole could come up with a system for the smaller Pro outfits? or even the one man band like myself.
I didn't go a lot on the andwat recorder, if you read between the lines it does have a time date stamp recorder but then it goes onto say to show your customer the before and after shot of the Job, it doesn't give a good description of its specs, so you can't judge the recorder on it,
My own colour cctv cameras look very professional in a stainless steel housing, and is waterproof, not like some of the cheap cctv plastic housings you buy for internal use.
If I wanted too, I could add my own portable dvd recorder to my system and that cost me £120 so I'm still looking at a good little system for under £300.
This post is no way knocking any companies product, just at what can be purchased from our local high street stores for less than half the price.
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This post is no way knocking any companies product, just at what can be purchased from our local high street stores for less than half the price.
Knock it, why not? They're only trying stuff out on you pal. They use you as a test pad after all. If its any good you'll say so or not and thats good for all of us - if its crap they will have to make it better, if its kosher then it'll sell.
Fair play to them and us.
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This post is no way knocking any companies product, just at what can be purchased from our local high street stores for less than half the price.
Knock it, why not? They're only trying stuff out on you pal. They use you as a test pad after all. If its any good you'll say so or not and thats good for all of us - if its crap they will have to make it better, if its kosher then it'll sell.
Fair play to them and us.
The thing is John you can't knock there system, its a very professional system, it is reasonably priced for the specs and the specs are very high on the cctv and recorder system. http://www.omnipole.com/OmniVac%20and%20OmniCam.htm check yourself.
I do believe in saving every penny I can, and as a one man band, apart from the odd help the Boss gives me, I can't justify paying loads of money for something I can make myself for a whole lot less money.
I have never used omnipole for there products so who am I to knock them, but If they could produce systems with good specs for one man bands, then I'm sure there sales would also increase, I have looked through there web-site and everything I have read, seems to have very good specs.
I would love to try some of there gear but thats for another day, and then you will get my honest opinion.
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a belive andy has sorted something out with a camera, he was over on the DIY site asking about a pole for it
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Hi Jeff
We have actually upgraded the specification now it can be seen on
http://www.omni-guttervac.com/guttervac_system.html
In fact we have upgraded again since this new site was put up to minimum of 30gb hard drive DVR.
I agree what you are saying with regard to building a more inexpensive unit and I am constantly looking at these issues. I am trialing a 2GB unit with a fixed camera at the moment which would be very suitable for smaller operations.
Our complete camera system is £800.00 which based on the very high specification is I believe very resonably priced.
Others may disagree with the above but I have been interested in cameras for many years and built my very first pole system for low level aerial photography and have spent thousands of pounds on Rollieflex's, Leica's, Nikons.
A pro photographer could buy a very decent camera for a few hundred pounds so why do they choose a Nikon costing £3,000.00 to £5000.00
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Others may disagree with the above but I have been interested in cameras for many years and built my very first pole system for low level aerial photography and have spent thousands of pounds on Rollieflex's, Leica's, Nikons.
A pro photographer could buy a very decent camera for a few hundred pounds so why do they choose a Nikon costing £3,000.00 to £5000.00
very true, but if your only looking at gutters, you dont need the higher end prices
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Hi Jeff
We have actually upgraded the specification now it can be seen on
http://www.omni-guttervac.com/guttervac_system.html
In fact we have upgraded again since this new site was put up to minimum of 30gb hard drive DVR.
I agree what you are saying with regard to building a more inexpensive unit and I am constantly looking at these issues. I am trialing a 2GB unit with a fixed camera at the moment which would be very suitable for smaller operations.
Our complete camera system is £800.00 which based on the very high specification is I believe very resonably priced.
Others may disagree with the above but I have been interested in cameras for many years and built my very first pole system for low level aerial photography and have spent thousands of pounds on Rollieflex's, Leica's, Nikons.
A pro photographer could buy a very decent camera for a few hundred pounds so why do they choose a Nikon costing £3,000.00 to £5000.00
Thanks Glyn
I did read the better spec one and I do admit it is value for money, the reason I know this, is I spent 15 years as a security engineer installing all sorts of cctv systems all over the country and in military installations, even up to microwave level, so I do know good specs when I see them.
Again for guttering work you could lower your spec and reduce the price accordingly, although your 2 GB would be within my price range, I know its out of range for a lot of one man bands who would love a little cctv system for there guttering work, after all its not a necessity for us, its just another tool in our box.
I'm almost 99% sure that omnipole could do a lower range cctv system for the one man band.
I have to do a test tomorrow for a guy, he wants me to put the camera onto my wfp system and check what its like doing windows with, I know I have to deal with shutter speeds and auto-focus along with white balance, but this is just a test run, the guy does some high buildings, if it works out good, I'll tell him, if its rubbish I'll also tell him, it is not for looking into bedroom windows Lol
Who knows it may have a potential for wfp in the future as well as guttering work, I might be knocking on a bit, but I think I'll stick to using my eyes for wfp work, I had enough shocks when I was up my ladder, might be even worse if I had a camera on the end of my brush.
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Hi Matt
If you want clear resolution in all types of lighting conditions 365 days a year then you require a high specification camera.
What would be the point of having a camera that only has a clear detailed picture of gutter debris on bright sunny days, gutters are a nightmare as they are usually dark and in dull or very bright conditions they would foil most camera systems.
What if If you want to look down into a downpipe or hopper to see a blockage on a dull afternoon. I am sure many on this forum have digital cameras that require a flash to take a decent photograph or the opposite a lighting flair in the very part of the picture you want most to see like your kids playing ball in the sunshine for example.
This quality camera detail is exactlly what you pay for in our camera systems.
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Thanks Jeff
I am taking on board everthing you have said.
Perhaps I will tap your brain in future with regard to CCTV
Glyn
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Thanks Jeff
I am taking on board everthing you have said.
Perhaps I will tap your brain in future with regard to CCTV
Glyn
Your most welcome, I'm only to happy to help. ;)
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I did a test with my cctv today for a member in spain, who does high commercial work.
I fitted my cctv to my wfp and set it all up to clean my own windows with, I got the boss to go out and clean them ;D while I sat in the warm and watched on the monitor, I must admit I was amazed by what I was watching, the detail was very good, I could see all the water flow, the movement of the brush, I even noticed a bird nugget, so popped my head out the window and informed the Boss to make sure she got it ;D
The up/down movement from the pole had no affect on the camera, it never suffered and jerky motion on the monitor, so all in all I found the system on wfp very good.
Its not the sort of thing I would personally use my self on domestic work, but for any guy's who do commercials on high buildings I would fully recommend its use if you want to see what your doing.
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During the process I found the fastest way to inspect most of the gutters is a big wing mirror on an adjustable elbow. Its very fast.
I think this is the best idea yet!
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Alex thats fine if you have good eye sight, I would need a set of binoculars to see the mirror ;D
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a belive andy has sorted something out with a camera, he was over on the DIY site asking about a pole for it
YES just finished today, and I got all the bits from ebay, I am more than happy with it, I am going to set a min price of 15 pounds but at the moment I cant clean them out as I dont have a vac gutter system, but I am working on that at the moment
The cost of my CCTV gutter inspection systems was just over 100 pounds, yes very good price indeed :)
Andy
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a belive andy has sorted something out with a camera, he was over on the DIY site asking about a pole for it
YES just finished today, and I got all the bits from ebay, I am more than happy with it, I am going to set a min price of 15 pounds but at the moment I cant clean them out as I dont have a vac gutter system, but I am working on that at the moment
The cost of my CCTV gutter inspection systems was just over 100 pounds, yes very good price indeed :)
Andy
i thought you had, i was concearned i had just dreamt it on a slow day
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a belive andy has sorted something out with a camera, he was over on the DIY site asking about a pole for it
YES just finished today, and I got all the bits from ebay, I am more than happy with it, I am going to set a min price of 15 pounds but at the moment I cant clean them out as I dont have a vac gutter system, but I am working on that at the moment
The cost of my CCTV gutter inspection systems was just over 100 pounds, yes very good price indeed :)
Andy
Did you find you had to get close to the gutters to see well?
I use the gutter lance for my guttering work at least with the lance you can clean the external sections as well, with the vac your only cleaning out the inside, so have a good think about what you need it for.
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a belive andy has sorted something out with a camera, he was over on the DIY site asking about a pole for it
YES just finished today, and I got all the bits from ebay, I am more than happy with it, I am going to set a min price of 15 pounds but at the moment I cant clean them out as I dont have a vac gutter system, but I am working on that at the moment
The cost of my CCTV gutter inspection systems was just over 100 pounds, yes very good price indeed :)
Andy
Did you find you had to get close to the gutters to see well?
I use the gutter lance for my guttering work at least with the lance you can clean the external sections as well, with the vac your only cleaning out the inside, so have a good think about what you need it for.
Hi Jeff it worked fine, I would like to test it on a dull day with poor light, I have tried the gutter lance and pressure washer on one job and it was a nightmare spend most of the time clearing up afterwards, but it was over flowing with pine needles
Andy
PS Matt yes you was right ;)
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andy
take some pics and do a bit of a post on what you brought over on the DIY site, im sure people would be interested ;)
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Andy
I bought the colour system with infra-red, so on a dull day and if ambient light allows, the infra-red lights will come on.
Do you have any photo's of your system up and runing? I'll try to get some of mine next week and stick them on matt's site as well.