[Jan K]

Hi Guys and girls!

I haven't been taking on any one-off jobs as the regulars have been keeping me on my toes, however one of my existing Clients has asked me to quote on a one-off for her sister! It is an average 3 bed house with lounge/diner, kitchen and bathroom, top and bottom hallway and of course stairs. She is moving out in August and wants a complete spring clean so it is left looking great for the next owners.

The gist of it is this...

washing all paintwork
Dusting all surfaces inc tops of wardrobes etc, and also all light fittings
Clean all UPVC heavy with mould and all windows
And of course a complete top to bottom clean of every room, inc moving furniture to get to dusty areas not normally touched!

I am going to put 2 cleaners in as I am reckoning on it taking a while, but just wondered how long you guys/girls, in your experience, think it would take?

Cheers!

Jan

[dustdees]

Hi,

I have just completed a top to bottom clean on a three bed house. It took 4 hours with two cleaners in one upstairs and the other downstairs.

But someone else may come up with something different.

Thanks what I would quote anyway.

Hope this helps

Love Denisexx

[Jan K]

thanks denise

i was thinking about 8 - 10 man hours myself, but that is without looking at it!

Jan

[Paula]

I would say between 4 & 7 hours depending on how dirty the place is.
Paula

[Jan K]

Paula I think you are way underestimating that with 4 hours, as it will take at least an hour just on the insides of windows, without the rest of it.

Bearing in mind it is a complete top to bottom clean of everything, except the walls, including moving all the furniture to get to some areas!!

Cheers!

Jan

[The Great One]

Hi

we have just done 3, 4 bed houses with carpets.

one took 20 man hours
one took 16 man hours
one took 8 man hours

Depends on how minging it is, how fast the staff move (the quicker the more per hour you earn) and other various factors.

Regards

Martin

[Jan K]

cheers martin!

I don't perceive it to be minging, but I shall put 2 cleaners in to do it!. Been getting lots of calls for one-off, so I shall be a bust bee over the hols 

Jan

[Jan K]

busy bee even!!

[Clean 'n' Tidy]

Jan,

I would say that you estimate would be nearer. I have done a couple of 3 bed houses and the time does vary. I would personally go and see the house and work it out from there.

1 took 18 hours
2 took 10 hours
3 took 8 hours.

I hope this helps.

Rgds
Kim

[Jan K]

Hi Guys!

After visiting this property, it is pretty clean, just needs a top to bottom spring cleaning job...mostly moving furniture to get to places not normally touched..insides of and tops of cupboards and the like. Quoted her 10 hours....she seemed happy with that and I shall put 2 peeps in too.

Thanks for your advice!

Jan

[dustdees]

Hi Jan,

Hope than my information helped, what time scales do you reckon for general regular cleans. When I was doing my market research, it seems to be normal to put in 2 cleans for 2.5 hours to clean a three bed house.What would time speck would you put on somethng like this?

Love Denisex

[Jan K]

Hi Denise!

My girls are able to clean a 3 bed house in 3 hours, once a week. Some are even able to drop it to 2 hours, once a week, once they are on top of the worst of it! And that is to an extremely high standard!

We look at 4/5/6 bed houses with 1/2/3 baths, 1/2 receptions, 1 kitchen and some extras like conservatories or utils which we can do in 4 - 6 hours per week in 1 or 2 visits.

The largest property we have at present (and bear in mind we are only into our 2nd week there) is a huge 3 bed/2 bath/2 conservatory/ 2 receptions/1 playroom in the main house and 1 bed/1 bath/1 kitchenette/1 frontroom in the barn and a huge gym in the garage.....which we do in 2 x 4 hour visits per week.

If your cleaners are really good and have a spot on routine, they can actually reduce the numbers of hours required to clean after a short time, thereby keeping customer happy and freeing themselves up to do extra customers.

Jan   

[dustdees]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for you reply,

Advice well recieved.Hope everything went ok with the 10 hour clean.I am pretty slow at the moment, so got to go out and leaflet drop.Hope it picks up soon!

Is everyone else slow at the moment or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks again,

Love Denise

[lisa123]

Hi, just a quickie
How long do you think it would take to clean, a reasonably clean 5 bed 2 bath, 3 downstairs rooms with kitchen, and attic room?

Its a short notice, urgent request for next thursday, they will be supplying cleaning stuff, we just need to turn up and do the job.

I am thinking of quoting £350 for 6 hours and 2 cleaners, i'm in shropshire, it is a very wealthy area i am goin to

I have already charged the guy £80 for 2 hrs an 2 cleaners on bank hol monday, does this sound right also?

any help appreciated, thanks, lisa

[Jan K]

Again it would depend on what your girls are expected to do.........you really must get into the habit of visiting the clients before quoting.........it is difficult to quote on ANY job without a visit prior to starting.

Having said that, my experienced girls can do a regular clean of that type in 4 - 5 hours, providing an excellent clean and only 1 girl doing the job too.....at my hourly rate that would be £36 - £45.........

Are you saying you would put 2 cleaners in for 6 hours (3 man hours each) or 2 cleaners in for 12 hours (6 man hours each).

Whether or not you are in a wealthy area, I think £350.00 either way is a bit of an over-estimation.......if I charged those rates down here I wouldn't even have got off the ground, regardless of whether I was working in a wealthy part of the city or not! I charge the same hourly rate to ALL my customers, the difference in the cost to each comes in the length of time it takes to do the job. You would have some very upset customers on your hands if ever a time came when 2 of them knew each other and realised you were charging someone in a wealthy area more than someone not.

Then can you afford to lose the ones who can't afford you as you are charging too much in favour of the wealthier one! Course it's up to you, it's your business, but surely it would be better to find a happy medium.

It's all a learning curve Lisa and one we all have to learn for ourselves, and that's the hard bit!

Good luck anyway 

[lisa123]

Hi jan
I have been thinking more about this, the guy will be showing me around on monday, obviously without seeing the property i am only guestimating.

I'm just trying to find out whats right and what isn't at the mo in regards to quotes and duration.

I think if it just needs a top to toe sparkle with some cobweb removal, considering we will be using clients cleaning materials, £30 per hour, hopefully between us it should only take 6 hours, but i have never done this size house before, so i really couldn't say. We could always negotiate a price for the extra work if it needs it.

[Jan K]

Hi Lisa!

That sounds more realistic..............quite often when I visit a property I will take a look around and say to myself well this will take between so many and so many hours, then quote the higher price. I have been caught out with underestimating and that is really frustrating (but we've probably all done that and again it part of the learning curve).

Are you going to go in and do the clean with one of your other cleaners? That is what I do with one-offs if it is something my regular cleaners haven't done before......just to make sure they are ok..........

[lisa123]

Hiya
It is just me and my business partner at the min, so we will be both going, it is 25 miles away and in a rural village where the guy is, so i have explained to him the quote is based on the short notice, travel and services.
As long as he is quoted a fair price he'll be happy, seems a decent guy.
Thrown in at the deep end will definatly get us learning, do you start a house from bottom to top or go from attic down? which way do you think is more productive in your experience?

[Jan K]

normally would do top to bottom, but as there are 2 of you you could split and 1 do top and other do bottom and whichever one of you finishes theie floor first helps the other finish! depends how many floors there are and rooms on each floor.