[Peter Fogwill]

Questions like this are exactly what forums are for.  It's all very well for the person that has been around for a while and had all the help he needs or wants who can't be bothered with the same question getting asked again. If that was the case then this forum would be as well closing because just about every question possible has been asked.

  Instead of ignoring the guy who seems to be doing double the work of someone else would it not be better to find out how he manages to do it? He obviously must be doing just as good a job as you or he wouldn't be in business.  It's easy to say he can't be doing it right, I must be doing a far better job, but I bet some of these guys doing double the amount per hour is cleaning to a better standard than some of the guys doing half the amount.

When you have been on the forums a bit you learn who to trust and who not to trust, and by asking the above question you get a good idea of what the right answers are.

Peter Fogwill
www.window-tools.come

[dazmond]

on very compact estate work.smallish 3 bedders i can clean 5 an hour wfp.i used to do 3-4 an hour trad.its easier wfp as well if you have a van mount and are used to the work.

so if your prices are around £6-£7 for these types of accounts then £30-£35 an hour.say you work 6 hours actually "on the glass" a day thats £180-£200+.

so if you did 9am-4pm with half hour for lunch,30 mins moving van,quick 5 min brew,chatting to customers etc your still earning a good amount.

these are cheap,small run of the mill jobs but still good solid "bread and butter" work IMO.i have nearly 2 weeks worth of these type of jobs plus larger domestic runs,blocks of flats,commercial etc.a good mix.

the great thing about the compact cheap work is they pay mostly on the day/end of the week.easy to collect so good cashflow.good xmas tips usually and i pick up lots of extras over the course of the year(fascia/soffit,conny roof cleaning).


regards

dazmond

[Londoner]

I knew that would be my reply! I said that to myself before I posted.

I'm just trying to work out how much you can earn an hour and I thought working out how many semi's you can do in an hour would be a senisible route to take. How would you work out how much to aim for an hour at start up?

I just want to give myself a realistic target that makes sense on a cashflow but I can also make a target for a canvassing campaign out of.

If you work on an estimate of 15 houses a day for your figures it won't be far out. No doubt there will be loads of people on here who will say they do more than that. There always are. Maybe one day you will be able to say you can. But for the moment 15 houses a day is a good batting average to work with.

[Spruce]

What a pointless question, what does it provide?  Insecurity!

Work on your own business and forget about what everyone else is doing, you're unlikely to ever be the best or the worst, just focus on what you can do and set your own targets if you desire.

Hi Ian
I have got a little bored with the number of times this question is raised as well. I couldn't agree more with your comments about getting on and focusing on your own business, working to your own capabilities and not bothering too much about how others are doing. Excellent advice. Age, physical physique, motivation and well as countless other variables all come into play.

Is it a pointless question? I don't think so as someone may come up with a little gem of advise that changes a person's whole perception of how to do things which could speed up your work rate with very little effort. On one of these repeated questions of speed, a debate started in the thread about a way to increase speed would be to increase water flow to your brush. This was totally foreign to me as I never had enough water for the day using a Vikan brush with 3mm jets and an unregulated pump. So to me a reduced flow meant water saving which would equate to less waste and more houses being done in a day. With a flow controller and smaller jets, water saving was paramount to more work being accomplished that day.

However, Peter Fogwill and others (another poster became very rude - probably boardering on abusive) by stating that you could work faster by spending less time on the glass with a higher flow rate - quicker rinsing. It was only after I tried this with much negativity that I found that they were correct. I have also managed to find the ideal flow that matches me work rate ability. Too higher flow rate - I waste water - too lower flow rate - I waste time and on a slow flow rate I was wasting time. So it was not exactly how fast you work, but having everything geared to that rate - working smarter.

But again my first reaction to a question such as this is to do a search first, and my second reaction is usually not to bother reading it and certainly not replying to it.

Spruce

[bobplum]

I'll be honest lol, I average just over 3 an hour trad standard 3 bed semis. Would be interested to know what I could do if I go wfp

probably still 3,on a one  to one basis sometimes its quicker doing it traditional but over a week you will end up ,i feel,ahead with wfp and less tired.
there is lots of factors to take into consideration,your age,your fitness,your motivation,what you need to earn and what you would like to earn,your work ethic,do you rush the job to get as many in as possible or take your time and doing a really good job.
This all about averages so i would echo what a lot of people have said on average you will clean about 3 houses an hour at say £10.00 per house,as £10.00 seems to be the average,so on average you can earn £30.00 per hour(gross) 7 hours a day,£210.00 a day so on and so on all based on averages

bob

[Spruce]

Wish we could get £10.00 a house up in the North East!

[gary999]

i do 3 traditional style bay fronted semis a hour on
compact work £12-£15 each

but on 4 bed detatched on new build estates i do four
per hour

[Ian Rochester]

I apologise to any that I annoyed with my earlier comments.  However we are not competing with each other, everyones business is different from the next persons, we will work at differing speeds, charge massively different prices, some have round that are very compact, others have rounds wher.e half their day is spend driving between jobs.

Comments about doing 8 or 9 three bed semis an hour easily makes me laugh  and just makes other less experienced cleaners wonder what they are doing wrong as they are only managing 2-3.

We have over 2000 properties varying in size from one bed flats to country houses that take a full day to clean, we cover a radius of nearly 30 miles from base.  To do this we've got 3 window cleaning vans all fitted with WFP systems and 6 window cleaners who work a 35 hour week... you do the maths and I can guarantee no two days will give the same results.  Some days we will do 60 houses a team, others maybe only 10 properties in total.

[PURER CLEAN]

I apologise to any that I annoyed with my earlier comments.  However we are not competing with each other, everyones business is different from the next persons, we will work at differing speeds, charge massively different prices, some have round that are very compact, others have rounds wher.e half their day is spend driving between jobs.

Comments about doing 8 or 9 three bed semis an hour easily makes me laugh  and just makes other less experienced cleaners wonder what they are doing wrong as they are only managing 2-3.

We have over 2000 properties varying in size from one bed flats to country houses that take a full day to clean, we cover a radius of nearly 30 miles from base.  To do this we've got 3 window cleaning vans all fitted with WFP systems and 6 window cleaners who work a 35 hour week... you do the maths and I can guarantee no two days will give the same results.  Some days we will do 60 houses a team, others maybe only 10 properties in total.

Well done Ian Rochester for doing what you have done mate ( hat off to you ) 
i seem to be around the 3 houses an hour, but im happy enough with that. Maybe my speed will pick up maybe it wont, after all its not a race its about doing a good job & being happy with what you do.( for me anyway )

[Peter Fogwill]

What you will find if you look back all the posts that the hourly rate is much the same. Try it out and see what you come up with.  People doing 8-10 houses an hour are on the same hourly rate as someone doing 3-4 houses an hour.  Some areas are lower priced than others, like London and the south coast being much higher priced than a village in Scotland for instance. Now what do you suppose is happening here? Anyone want to have a stab at how this is possible?  Have a look first at previous posts, multiply houses per hour by price per house, then if I am about right come back and answer my questions.

Peter

[Richard iSparkle]

we do 4-6 houses an hour on average and average price is £13 per house 

[Peter Fogwill]

we do 4-6 houses an hour on average and average price is £13 per house  

It would be handy to say if it was one or two people working?

In this thread we know roughly what Mark and Ronnie do per hour, and they are roughly the same. And if Richard and a helper do 6 houses at £13 that is roughly the same as well.

Now before someone finds an exception to the rule, I agree there is always an exception to the rule, and remember I did say in general, and roughly.

Peter

Peter

[Ronnie Bryce]

Here is a link to the 3 bed semis I do. I charge half of the going rate down south I guess. Now the four houses you see here I will routinely do in under 25 minutes quite easily, so eight an hour is realistically no problem for me. It's wfp. Why someone would only think about laughing at the guy who does 8 houses an hour is beyond me, but there you go. The work in question is easy, I don't run around like madman, there is safety in numbers (as in customer's) and at my fair price, I am hard to undercut
What is there to laugh about? Perhaps Ian Rochester can enlighten me some.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=overtown&hl=en&ll=55.75639,-3.91345&spn=0.014127,0.038581&sll=51.243196,-1.26328&sspn=0.062866,0.154324&vpsrc=0&hnear=Overtown,+North+Lanarkshire,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=55.756447,-3.913124&panoid=tJr8-jEplgvYI-srrKdJ6A&cbp=12,202.52,,0,-5.52

[Peter Fogwill]

I know what people can do, I know people personally who do more than what you have quoted per hour, and at the same sort of price, you could call them exceptions to the rules and they are the ones doing the laughing. What I can't understand is why these people aren't trying to find out how it's done.  Yes they may be happy with the size of their business, the amount they earn, and the hours they work, but why they don't want to double their earnings for very little effort is beyond me.  The exceptions to the rules are not trying to hide anything and would probably help people out, but some of them will be keeping quiet to stop people laughing at them.

Peter

[gary999]

Here is a link to the 3 bed semis I do. I charge half of the going rate down south I guess. Now the four houses you see here I will routinely do in under 25 minutes quite easily, so eight an hour is realistically no problem for me. It's wfp. Why someone would only think about laughing at the guy who does 8 houses an hour is beyond me, but there you go. The work in question is easy, I don't run around like madman, there is safety in numbers (as in customer's) and at my fair price, I am hard to undercut
What is there to laugh about? Perhaps Ian Rochester can enlighten me some.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=overtown&hl=en&ll=55.75639,-3.91345&spn=0.014127,0.038581&sll=51.243196,-1.26328&sspn=0.062866,0.154324&vpsrc=0&hnear=Overtown,+North+Lanarkshire,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=55.756447,-3.913124&panoid=tJr8-jEplgvYI-srrKdJ6A&cbp=12,202.52,,0,-5.52

i wish all my work was like that,easy access minimum windows to clean
or better still rows of fronts of houses i love that type of work,little effort
no access issues. wonderful

[Smudger]

Ronnie - in theory you are quite correct ( if you timed a house clean and it took 6 mins - then 10 p/h is possible )
but there are other factors like have you got 10 identical houses in a row that does not involve a van move or refill
if using a trolley ? - what if some have a conny on the back - bad access etc.. ( i have a nice pair of bungalows - and one always takes longer due to all the ornaments and planters scattered everywhere )

then physically doing 3 in 25 mins is easier than a full non stop hour, where you can start to flag - and are you going to manage that 6 to 7 days per day - every day ??

they are nice little semi's there - front & back no side window - do you wash the doors as well ?

Darran

[AuRavelling79]

Take a red brick ex council house - when I was trad and they were within a hundred yards of each other I would do 3 per hour over 4 hours at £6  each.

Now I do the same plus more similar at an average of £9 each (old £6 up to £8) new stuff now £10 or £11). But now it's 4 per hour.

[Richard iSparkle]

we do 4-6 houses an hour on average and average price is £13 per house  

It would be handy to say if it was one or two people working?

In this thread we know roughly what Mark and Ronnie do per hour, and they are roughly the same. And if Richard and a helper do 6 houses at £13 that is roughly the same as well.

Now before someone finds an exception to the rule, I agree there is always an exception to the rule, and remember I did say in general, and roughly.

sorry, that's me working on my own.  if its 6 houses they need to be easy access 3 bed semis.  but 4 - 5 is standard



Peter

[PurefectWindowCleaning]

What a pointless question, what does it provide?  Insecurity!

Work on your own business and forget about what everyone else is doing, you're unlikely to ever be the best or the worst, just focus on what you can do and set your own targets if you desire.

What a pointless question?, ...What a pointless reply more like!!


Whats wrong with trying to get a rough idea of how many houses to clean per hour if your just starting up??

4 an hour when using wfp for tops is a good guideline providing houses are close together.

[colley614]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to work at the 3 an hour mark just to be on the safe side. Anymore will be considered a bonus to me.

Although it will be the first time I've ever really gone at the domestic market. I am no stranger to the window cleaning industry. I've been cleaning windows for over ten years but this has been on commercial work from shop fronts to hotels. I have never really worked on domestic work with water fed poles. I have mainly bladed them and the jobs I've tended to do is office managers and the MD of the commercial jobs house. When I started out last time I aimed at commercial work and found myself hindered by the amount of competition so I decided to sub most of my work in. When this dried up I ended up with a lot of overheads to pay and little work to pay them with so I went back to the drawing board.

I am now ready to take the step back into self employment and have a fresh prospective on it. After being self employed I find it difficult explaining to a manger who has never cleaned a window in his life why I took 32 minutes break instead of 30 or that a job took me half an hour longer this month because half way through the day I checked my TDS and decided the resin needed changing.