[TVCS]

A few months ago,just as I was looking into buying a wfp system, I read a few posts on here from trad guys saying how they had seen wfp'ers taking so long to get the hoses etc set up that they (the trad guys) could have done the house already. 
This made me think and put a bit of doubt in my mind about spending the money if I was going to be slower than before.
A few weeks in and I thought that They were right as I seemed to be forever getting tangled and really slow.
Anyway.
Pulled up to a customers house today. Nice house, £10, easy access and the  neighbour the same.  Opposite there was a chap up a ladder cleaning windows.  Never seen him before.
'Morning Mate' I shouted as I started to run my hose out of the van.
'Ow do Boss' came his reply. (pretty yocal I think)
Well the house he was cleaning had 3 upstairs and 3 downstairs and a front door .
I had finished the 2 houses and got all my stuff back in the van, looked across and he was still up his ladder.
'You fair smokin now boss' he called from atop his ladder.
'Thats right' was all I could think of to say.
I have only been wfp'ing for 4 months ish  now but today made me think that perhaps I had made the right choice.
Or perhaps he was just a slow windowcleaner.

[brett walker]

you made the right choice 


you will speed up more you wfp


brett

[Fast 1 *]

maybe he was a window fitter

[neil100]

I was thinking about this on friday.

I pulled onto a culdesac jumped out of the van, opened the back door and I new I wanted to lock the back door as I think their are some light fingered Freddies in the area.

I put the hose through my belt so the valve sits on my hip and I start to walk pulling sections of hose as I am walking to make a coil. I know by the time I get to the corner of the furthest house I can stop pulling and just use the length on the coil to make it round the back. I get to the furthest window and I have about 2 feet spare of hose.

I unclip the hose out of my belt and walk back to the van, I pull out my 18' and my mini pole, shut the van doors and lock the van via my remote. I walk back to my hose clip hose in my belt and start cleaning.

Now if I was cleaning with ladders I know I would not of had to come back to the van, but I would have 2 ladder clamps to undo, get the bucket out of the car and get myself ready. I would of been about 40 seconds quicker to start on this occasion with ladders. But that is only because I wanted to lock my van, Its not something I do all the time. If I had not wanted to lock the van I would have of been wfp quicker then I would with ladders as I would have carried everything in one go.

Once you start cleaning it is so much quicker with wfp. I did the 6 houses in 90 minutes earning £63.00. All detached, thats about an hour quicker then the ladders.

I have a domestic round and wfp is so much faster then trad its unreal.

I have had 2 complaints this week with the windows being covered in salt. Both those complaints where on houses I cleaned Trad. Its so hard to get them cleaned right trad when they are so salty. No problems with wfp I just give an extra scrub and a really good rinse.

Nel.

[john tomkins]

Neil can I ask how you shut the van doors with a trailing hose, I just push them as close too as the'll go but obviously not shut as it taps the hose, I'm always wary in some areas when I'm at the rear of the house and van is parked on road at front, even more so when I'm up and over a garage! :

[Sir Squeaky]

I have had 2 complaints this week with the windows being covered in salt. Both those complaints where on houses I cleaned Trad. Its so hard to get them cleaned right trad when they are so salty. No problems with wfp I just give an extra scrub and a really good rinse.

Wfp doesn't work on salt, just ask Ross or Dave.

Neil, you must have been bloody crap at trad.

[Paul Coleman]

A few months ago,just as I was looking into buying a wfp system, I read a few posts on here from trad guys saying how they had seen wfp'ers taking so long to get the hoses etc set up that they (the trad guys) could have done the house already. 
This made me think and put a bit of doubt in my mind about spending the money if I was going to be slower than before.
A few weeks in and I thought that They were right as I seemed to be forever getting tangled and really slow.
Anyway.
Pulled up to a customers house today. Nice house, £10, easy access and the  neighbour the same.  Opposite there was a chap up a ladder cleaning windows.  Never seen him before.
'Morning Mate' I shouted as I started to run my hose out of the van.
'Ow do Boss' came his reply. (pretty yocal I think)
Well the house he was cleaning had 3 upstairs and 3 downstairs and a front door .
I had finished the 2 houses and got all my stuff back in the van, looked across and he was still up his ladder.
'You fair smokin now boss' he called from atop his ladder.
'Thats right' was all I could think of to say.
I have only been wfp'ing for 4 months ish  now but today made me think that perhaps I had made the right choice.
Or perhaps he was just a slow windowcleaner.

Ignoring the first couple of cleans, I am quicker with WFP.  On some houses I save no time but on others I do save time.  In some cases it is actually twice as fast but that is on larger jobs where the setting up and putting away is a lower proportion of the overall job time.  I'm not saying that I was especially fast on the squeegee but I was no slouch either.  I suppose that if we were to clock the speeds of experienced window cleaners, I would have been about average.

[Ian_Giles]

I have had 2 complaints this week with the windows being covered in salt. Both those complaints where on houses I cleaned Trad. Its so hard to get them cleaned right trad when they are so salty. No problems with wfp I just give an extra scrub and a really good rinse.

Wfp doesn't work on salt, just ask Ross or Dave.

Neil, you must have been bloody crap at trad.

Rog, neither of us have experienced salt encrusted windows, so we can't really comment, and from what I have read of Nel's previous posts he was a very good trad cleaner indeed, and a pretty quick one, he's also been going an awful lot longer than you too!
So tut tut..a little naughty of you to infer that Nel was a crap trad window cleaner dude...

Ian

[neil100]

I went back to check on some of the windows I did last week with wfp Squeaks,I even got my ladders off and checked the upstairs windows because this is the first time I am having to deal with salt on them. I have read Ross posts and Daves about the problems with salt.

The glass was spotless with wfp and I now know as long as I scrub them well and rinse well that the salt should not be a problem with wfp. I checked the upstairs windows on houses that have roofs that overhang the upstairs windows, because of this the the salt at the top of the glass can never get washed away by the rain.

I am a very honest bloke and I know its nearly impossible to clean windows perfectly with trad methods in Winter when they are covered in salt. Your Squggee will leave fine salt lines,you can only avoid this if you put a new rubber in every hour, and then you will still leave faint lines, if you then try to wipe them off with a scrim you just move the salt around the window.

If you were to be super critical of your own work when the sun is low in the sky you would realize your not as good as you think you are, If you then try to get every window perfect that as salt on you will be earning such a small amount of money you would pack windows in.

I accept that when windows are really salty if I was trad only that the windows will not be perfect, they will be as clean as any other w/cleaner could get them if not better, But they will not be perfect despite taking longer then normall to clean.

Nel, Its a lot easier doing salty windows with wfp.

[Sir Squeaky]

... Your Squggee will leave fine salt lines

Remind me not to buy a Squggee.

Fair post though Nel, but if you were critical of wfp you'd find it's not as good as you think too...