[Shrek]

Hi all ,

What’s the best advice you could give for pricing commercials & schools?
Do you price per window, time you think it’ll take , why are they different to pricing a house?

Cheers 👍

[The Jester of Wibbly]

I tend to break it down in sections and price up each section separately.    I never base price per window as they tend to be all sizes.  Price each window as you see fit and jot down each total per section.

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.

[tlwcs]

Price it well.
I had a bacs payment Monday this week from a school I cleaned I August
They don't rush.

[lal]

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.


  Paul who the hell is PAT ?? 

[The Jester of Wibbly]

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.


  Paul who the hell is PAT ?? 

Haha wondered who would be first to ask.

It's "Paul Added Tax".

A bit extra added to bill to cover anything I missed when quoting or a layer to protect any haggling they might do. 

[Shrek]

I tend to break it down in sections and price up each section separately.    I never base price per window as they tend to be all sizes.  Price each window as you see fit and jot down each total per section.

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.

Hi , thanks for showing me round today and here is your quote-
To clean all internal & external windows, the price would be £700 +

[robbo333]

I priced each 'run' separately, working on time to clean each window, rather than the amount of windows.
Also, make sure you SEE every window (I love it when they say "there's just a couple of windows round there'") Go and look.
Ask if there are any EXTRAS they want done. You need to be specific about what you are ACTUALLY cleaning.
Who signs it off and payment terms.
Ironically, the one I priced was way too big for me (3 schools) and I was busy at the time, so I gave it to a mate of mine who only does commercial. They were minging too. He cleaned them using the Schools water tap and had someone else follow him round with pure.
Actually...he still owes me a beer! 

[Spruce]

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.


  Paul who the hell is PAT ?? 

Haha wondered who would be first to ask.

It's "Paul Added Tax".

A bit extra added to bill to cover anything I missed when quoting or a layer to protect any haggling they might do. 

Agree.
Schools usually only want the windows cleaned once a year. Some of those bird poo strikes can be a nightmare to completely remove as they have been baked on the glass.

If you think it will take you 20 minutes, wrong; it will take 30 minutes.

We started off with a new school building 8 years ago and each year its getting harder to achieve the time schedule I originally set. I'm also 8 years older so this could also have a bearing on the results.

I have the school buildings drawn up on a spreadsheet. I've broken the school down into sections and we time each section as we clean it. We then compare the time taken for each section over the years. 

The other issue you need to consider (it was in our case) is that they generally want the school cleaned during the last two weeks of the summer holidays. We are inconvenienced by exams results becoming available on 2 of those days. They don't want us on site on those 2 days.  So the questions are always; when do we start,  when do we need to be finished and when are the exam results days. We then schedule our time around that taking the weather into consideration.

It helps as I have keys to the main gate and all the other internal gates, so we can work on a weekend. I get permission first though, so if we set the alarm off (like we have done in the past - water into a door alarm sensor) they know its us and don't over react.

We start to plan this about a month before the school closes. We also need to consider holidays taken by the staff as we need a scaffolding tower erected in the main atrium area as we also clean the internals of that as well. As of last clean, only one of the staff had a 'ticket' to erect that scaffold tower as they had 2 new staff members. The staff member had 2 weeks leave during the holidays.

[JandS]

PAT as another meaning round here when quoting for work for a certain ethnic persuasion.

[Smudger]

Some great advice already and as said be specific on what’s being done particularly on the insides as cleaners normally do connecting doors and windows price per window  until you get a feel for how these jobs go I can now price a site simply by knowing how long it will take for 1 2 or 3 guys smaller schools seem to have 3 cleans a year larger ones just a single clean also let them know that you will or won’t remove tape and blue tack and if you are allow for this older schools may have a lot of security film on the inside glass this will not clean up if damaged drawn on or has tape
Darran

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.


  Paul who the hell is PAT ?? 

Haha wondered who would be first to ask.

It's "Paul Added Tax".

A bit extra added to bill to cover anything I missed when quoting or a layer to protect any haggling they might do. 

Agree.
Schools usually only want the windows cleaned once a year. Some of those bird poo strikes can be a nightmare to completely remove as they have been baked on the glass.

If you think it will take you 20 minutes, wrong; it will take 30 minutes.

We started off with a new school building 8 years ago and each year its getting harder to achieve the time schedule I originally set. I'm also 8 years older so this could also have a bearing on the results.

I have the school buildings drawn up on a spreadsheet. I've broken the school down into sections and we time each section as we clean it. We then compare the time taken for each section over the years. 

The other issue you need to consider (it was in our case) is that they generally want the school cleaned during the last two weeks of the summer holidays. We are inconvenienced by exams results becoming available on 2 of those days. They don't want us on site on those 2 days.  So the questions are always; when do we start,  when do we need to be finished and when are the exam results days. We then schedule our time around that taking the weather into consideration.

It helps as I have keys to the main gate and all the other internal gates, so we can work on a weekend. I get permission first though, so if we set the alarm off (like we have done in the past - water into a door alarm sensor) they know its us and don't over react.

We start to plan this about a month before the school closes. We also need to consider holidays taken by the staff as we need a scaffolding tower erected in the main atrium area as we also clean the internals of that as well. As of last clean, only one of the staff had a 'ticket' to erect that scaffold tower as they had 2 new staff members. The staff member had 2 weeks leave during the holidays.

also  you need to factor alot of extra water usage , as you will be on full tilt and rubbing like mad to get top results as black death on these type of window are very common ( this is where you see the dirty water running down when cleaning )

after you done a load always walk back and check them as sometimes they will need redoing due to the black death

if they want the insides doing price very well as they have had a year of broad kids wiping bogies all over them , you will have to use a mix of washing up liquid with a touch of virosol in to cut though this 

dont forget the ppe including reversing beepers on the van AGAIN  is differs from school to school so you may need to check out the local council  office for there by laws 

[Spruce]

At the end I total up the sections add PAT and write up quote.


  Paul who the hell is PAT ?? 

Haha wondered who would be first to ask.

It's "Paul Added Tax".

A bit extra added to bill to cover anything I missed when quoting or a layer to protect any haggling they might do. 

Agree.
Schools usually only want the windows cleaned once a year. Some of those bird poo strikes can be a nightmare to completely remove as they have been baked on the glass.

If you think it will take you 20 minutes, wrong; it will take 30 minutes.

We started off with a new school building 8 years ago and each year its getting harder to achieve the time schedule I originally set. I'm also 8 years older so this could also have a bearing on the results.

I have the school buildings drawn up on a spreadsheet. I've broken the school down into sections and we time each section as we clean it. We then compare the time taken for each section over the years. 

The other issue you need to consider (it was in our case) is that they generally want the school cleaned during the last two weeks of the summer holidays. We are inconvenienced by exams results becoming available on 2 of those days. They don't want us on site on those 2 days.  So the questions are always; when do we start,  when do we need to be finished and when are the exam results days. We then schedule our time around that taking the weather into consideration.

It helps as I have keys to the main gate and all the other internal gates, so we can work on a weekend. I get permission first though, so if we set the alarm off (like we have done in the past - water into a door alarm sensor) they know its us and don't over react.

We start to plan this about a month before the school closes. We also need to consider holidays taken by the staff as we need a scaffolding tower erected in the main atrium area as we also clean the internals of that as well. As of last clean, only one of the staff had a 'ticket' to erect that scaffold tower as they had 2 new staff members. The staff member had 2 weeks leave during the holidays.

also  you need to factor alot of extra water usage , as you will be on full tilt and rubbing like mad to get top results as black death on these type of window are very common ( this is where you see the dirty water running down when cleaning )

after you done a load always walk back and check them as sometimes they will need redoing due to the black death

if they want the insides doing price very well as they have had a year of broad kids wiping bogies all over them , you will have to use a mix of washing up liquid with a touch of virosol in to cut though this 

dont forget the ppe including reversing beepers on the van AGAIN  is differs from school to school so you may need to check out the local council  office for there by laws

Interesting comment about reverse beepers.

That's never been  an issue with us. They just don't want us on site when and staff or pupils are about. We have another children's care center we do and we can only do that on a weekend when no one is about. That's done once a month.

The worst section is around the canteen. The school has a long outside rain canopy the little darlings can sit under and stay dry when its raining. They like to flick food up on the underside of the roof to see how much sticks.

.

[Shrek]

I did the job , it was only some large external assembly hall windows and a corridor internal & external windows.
Priced it at 1hr 10 mins , took me 1hr 40 mins so underpriced it.
It’s the first one Iv done so didn’t know what to expect, I’m so used to seeing a house and saying £12 or whatever .
It was actually my daughters school, so me and the head already know each other. She didn’t ask about ppe or reverse beeping sensors, just asked how soon I can fit her in .

Cheers everyone

[cgh window cleaning]

 I only clean one school and the one I clean is private so the price is good.

From my experience and opinion schools only want one thing and thats cheap window cleaning they do not care about anything else.Most people I know that clean them won the job by knowing someone there and the price or by giving the caretaker a backhander.

I looked at one to price  this September and after walking round the site and viewing it with the caretaker he came out and told me what they where paying and said if I could beat it and give him a drink the job was mine.I had never met the bloke in my life and he openly said a bribe would win it.

[Smudger]

I only clean one school and the one I clean is private so the price is good.

From my experience and opinion schools only want one thing and thats cheap window cleaning they do not care about anything else.Most people I know that clean them won the job by knowing someone there and the price or by giving the caretaker a backhander.

I looked at one to price  this September and after walking round the site and viewing it with the caretaker he came out and told me what they where paying and said if I could beat it and give him a drink the job was mine.I had never met the bloke in my life and he openly said a bribe would win it.

interesting - personally i would report that, but thats just me

most i quote the caretaker is desperate for some one to do it as they don't want to do it themselves