[jodan63]

how do you folks price houses up, especially if you know that the first clean is going to take longer than the next. do you charge per window and add a bit on for 1st clean?any advice greatfully taken
thank you

[Fast 1 *]

I dont usually charge any extra for a first clean,not unless im there absolutely ages.Work it out on an hourly basis of £25-£30 an hour

[Grafters Cleaning Services]

how do you folks price houses up, especially if you know that the first clean is going to take longer than the next. do you charge per window and add a bit on for 1st clean?any advice greatfully taken
thank you

on the 1st clean add half the price
eg. job worth £10 add £5 making it £15
then £10 there after.

[captain lard]

I dont charge anything extra for a first clean simply because I worry that for making and extra few quid for a first clean they might turn me down and I will lose a monthly job for whatever the cost will be,so if the price was £5 a month I dont like to ask for £7-50 for a first clean in case they get the hump and in a year thats a loss of £60 (ie 12 cleans at £5 a time) just to get £2-50 extra if you see what I mean but it does seem to work for a lot of the lads here.I am also very new and have not got the experience but thought I would put me two'penneth in.Maybe with a bit experience I will be able to suss out customers and how desperate they are and do this but at the minute I dont risk it as I am trying to build a full round.

[jodan63]

captain lord, that was exaactly how i was thinking. ok so you charge extra for 1 st clean, they accept and then after you have done the donkey work, they fire you off. but if they are going to fire you off after the first clean, then why not charge extra. it definately is a poser, wot to do!

[captain lard]

It is mate to be fair,some of my first cleans have been very messy and taken a fair bit of time and I had wished I had charged more and I might have gotten it but the view I have taken is that after the first clean-esp frames etc,when you go regularly every 2 to 4 weeks the clean is a lot quicker so look at it long term,plus I havent had anyone sack me after a first clean(or ever yet) so at the minute am not worrying about charging more.
Whether I am right is debatable,we are here to clean and make a living so I could be missing out on increased earnings but would rather miss out on a couple of extra quid and have a job long term than get turned down over a first clean price.
the 2 to 4 weeks cycle to cleaning is important to me though,longer than that and I find the frames and windows get pretty dirty so you are losing time cleaning them up to standard again,I find over 4 weeks and its getting towards a first clean scenario,if someone wanted a clean on a basis longer than 4 weeks I would be thinking of charging a bit more then.We have a family friend who has a big country house with georgian windows that has not been cleaned in a while,plus she has mentioned an 8 week period between cleaans which I am worrying about as I feel that is going to make it a long job every time,am going to do the clean and talk to her and try to persuade her to get them done more regularly otherwise it will get dropped when my round fills up but its useful now as I have not got a full round and itll be good experience.

[sunshine windows]

I find over 4 weeks and its getting towards a first clean scenario,

Blimey, where abouts are you cleaning. Some of my customers are 3 monthly and they still aren't in a bad condition even after that period of time

Regards,
Sunshine

[Sir Squeaky]

I only charge extra for first clean if they're really filthy.
Even then it's only a quid or two.

Oh, and some clean water when I leave please.

[captain lard]

I find over 4 weeks and its getting towards a first clean scenario,

Blimey, where abouts are you cleaning. Some of my customers are 3 monthly and they still aren't in a bad condition even after that period of time

Regards,
Sunshine

Up in the north east mate,just my personal findings mainly on some frames and the top part of upstairs windows getting dusty,the frames are prone to spider webs and stuff and if they go a while you get a canny build up of webs/insects and grime,others are on a main road and I think that doesnt help,funny thing is some houses never seem too bad and others just seem to attract dirt.I give frames and sills a thorough clean so if they get dirty it adds time to the job,my fortnightlies are a dream though.

[sunshine windows]

I can understand it on main road jobs. I've got a busy road and they're minging after 1 month, but on my housing estate jobs they are still pretty good after a couple of months.

Must be all that industrial smoke up north getting to them 

Regards,
Sunshine

[captain lard]

No mate its definately spiders and webs.

[scrimit2]

after two month my jobs are pretty bad, webs etc, much harder to clean than if I was on time

[neil100]

I charge generally a £1 a window. that should let you earn between £30 to £40 an hour.

First cleans I allways charge more. just a couple of £ more if they are not so dirty, £5 if they are bad, even more if its a big house.

I dont want to clean windows just once, I feel done over if this happens. I explain to the customer why i charge more on first cleans and most feel fine about it. The only ones who dont like it are the I will have them cleaned just the once brigade.

Nel.

[billozz]

all our windowcleaning is done based on the time it takes to clean, so, a first clean will always be more, but we explain why and they seem to accept it. if you think about it if they havent been done for 2 years and we clean them and charge double the norm at say £16, they would have paid about £200 for 2 years cleaning at £8 per time so i dont think £16 is gonna bother em too much,seems to work for us anyway

[captain lard]

Had not thought of that angle mate-nice insight.

[LSB]

i dont charge extra for first cleans ( unless they are really outrageously dirty ) , the following months cleans are always much quiker , and then everyones happy ! i never do one offs even at silly money , but do talk about half of those into regular cleans , so again i think it evens out without ever having the P taken

[EasyClean]

I had to clean a new one today (it was BLACK), I had arranged to charge them approximately £75.00 over the phone the other day as I hadn't looked at it, but when I looked at it amongst the builders on the worksite I quickly spoke to the property developer managing the re-development and informed him the new price would be £100.00. I caught him vulnerable on the spot , cleaned it this afternoon and made my £100.00 I don't mind cleaning first cleans for the same price as a regular clean so long as they are not BLACK, (I'm not predjudice by the way), I'm just not being taken for a ride like I use to when I first started!