[zeusjazmin]

picked up my backpack on wednesday,went home to practice on my own windows.
not so good results,4 or 5 dirty runs left on each window,is this because i never rinsed the top properly?
any other tips would be gratefully received

[ScrimShady]

i have only ben doing it for 5 months and the what i do is make sure the tops of the frames are spotless and rinse rinse and rinse again
Hope this helps
ScrimShady

[zeusjazmin]

thanks scrim ,every wee bit of advice helps

[DASERVICES]

  Zeus,

  This is just my own opnion, I met up with a fellow Scot window cleaner and saw
  his backpack. Looking at the flow that was coming from his backpack I advised
  that his flow should be turned on high to get a good rinse.

  This however will mean you will get through more water, the better flow
  you have the less problems you will find.

  Just my personel opinion maybe some guys on here that have a backpack
  could advise better.

  The best advise is to spend some time with someone who has had some
  experience with WFP, this is what I did in the beginning and it helped me a lot.

  Cheers

  Doug

[pylofm]

Hi all, I am currently at the end of my first week of cleaning..I am using WFP and have to admit that I am using a alot of water for each clean....

As with the previous advice, I am treating each window as 2 seperate entity's.

1st the frame, scrub, scrub, and load of rinsing, then once happy moved to work on the glass.

I have to admit that this is my first week but this seems to be working, each new customer is called at around 18:00 on the evening of the 1st clean as a follow up (and for my piece of mind).

But as others have said..rinse, rinse and rinse some more.

Cheers Dave.

[JM123]

pyloform - are you british but livin in holland or are you dutch  -just curious.

[pylofm]

JM123, hi, I am English but am now living in Holland

Cheers
Dave.

[windows_chepstow]

picked up my backpack on wednesday,went home to practice on my own windows.
not so good results,4 or 5 dirty runs left on each window,is this because i never rinsed the top properly?
any other tips would be gratefully received

Zeus,

Until you get a bit more experienced, be a little over-zealous with your first cleans.

It's a pain I know; but it does work and as time goes on; you'll be flying round.

I do this on first WFP cleans.

1.  I wash all the frames and glass first time round and give a quick rinse on each window, taking a bit of extra time to rinse the top frame well.  Top frames will cause problems.  With regards to the glass, give it a good scrub, but you don't need to go OTT.

2.  After you've done all the windows, return to the first window and then rinse the glass only.

The thinking behind this is:

By washing the top frame really well and washing the glass basically cleans everything, but drops of dirt possibly could drip from the top frame and dry dirty on the window below.

So, by returning later, after gravity has done its work; rinsing will shift any dirty drips that may have dropped onto the glass.

On subsequent cleans, you'll be faster.

The backpack is a class bit of equipment, but it does take some experience to get to know how to use it to its best advantage.

I don't trolley mount mine anymore; I carry it on my back and pull a 25 litre barrel on a sack truck with me.

[Londoner]

Tosh, as always, is dead right. Rinse rinse rinse is the way to do it. If I could say anything as a warning be careful not to let this develop into an obsession. If you are like me you find yourself standing there scrubbing and rinsing long after you should have moved on to the next window.

With trad when you got to the bottom of the window you stopped.With WFP you have to judge when enough is enough. The new system only works to your advantage if you are quicker than you would have been on trad.
Technique is important too.

[pylofm]

I have been using WFP this week for the first time....All my cleans at the moment are 1st cleans and I have been taking anywhere from 30min to 50mins to do a 3 bed semi....and the last house last week I used 60 litres if my memory serves me right..

I suppose this is all down to trying to get it right...

Cheers Dave

p.s have had a lot of pain in my neck this weekend....

[JM123]

hi pylofm are you using a backpack/trolley/trailer/van/fuel tanker??

[pylofm]

Hi, I am using a trolley at the moment which is used both as van mount and trolley.

I have to admit that I am very new and just using loads of water as a I just want to do the best job and loads of rinsing seems to be my initial thoughts.

Cheers
Dave.

[JM123]

ok firstly spend no more than 30 secs per window spending about 25 secs of that along the top part of the frame around the glass (the water running down will do the rest of the work for you) then give the rest of the glass a very quick once over with the brush.  An average semi should take you less than 10 mins at this rate while still doing a really good job.  Once you have done half a dozen semis like this you should be able to start going a little quicker, say 20 secs per window, don't forget though that the bulk of your time is taken up with going from window to window and pulling hoses round and the like.

[pylofm]

Thanks JM123....I know that my 'way' seems excessive but I am just finding my feet (covered in water most of the time ) with WFP and am scared to 'c*&k' it up...
Each of our new  customers gets a call in the evening just to make sure that all is well....

Was at a large detatched last week for 3.5 hours, it had 47 windows...

Cheers for the advice.

Dave

[JM123]

aye you'll get quicker, especially as these are all initial cleans, so next time round you'll def be quicker.

[pylofm]

You wanna hope so or I'll be starving !!...cheers for the advice

Dave.

[windows_chepstow]

Zeusjazsomething,

How're you getting on with the WFP?

Can we have an update?

[zeusjazmin]

made an arse of most of the windows.
i am lucky enough to be able to go inside the building and look out at some of my windows,some of them were a real mess ,still spiders webs trailing and long dirty runs.
i will initially only be using it on 2 jobs every 6 weeks till i get more used to it.
i do my second job this week and will take on board all the adcice given,looking back i now realise i never spent enough time on the top frames,a lesson learned.
using a 30 ft pole is hard work,at this rate i will be the arm wrestling champion of scotland pretty soon!
thank you all once again for the advice,it really is appreciated
ps i will let you know how my second try turns out at the weekend   thanks

[AuRavelling79]

Today I took on a new customer with the dreaded aluminium tatty frames (not done for two years) - here's what I did

Double bayed semi larger than average but not huge - £20

Mix up a bucket of GG4 like you would for trad.

Dip brush head bristles in above to the depth of an inch (not to the backplate).

Do the all top window top frames on a low pressure - scrub-a-dub lots.

Go back at the same pressure scrub and rinse each window top frame again, then all the frame and then all over each window's glass.

Finally rinse the glass only again. (At higher pressure)

Seems like a lot of work? Yes - One hour exactly but sparkly sparkle, no milk runs and next time one third to one half of the time! (No GG4, no second or third scrub etc)

(Oh and being every 8 weeks it's £20 a shot cuz wfp cleans last longer)

[beefy]

zeus im  only doing certain jobs with my backpack so im not pushed for time at firs i washed on 1 & rinsed on 2 but the results were bad i had to redo all 3 houses now i wash on 1 & rinse on 3 & have had good results i also seem to do less rinsing if the glass sheets (not beads) with good results i did a big house the other day that takes about 1hr 20min trad all the glass sheeted & it took me 50 mins or so & i used 60 ltr. to be honest i get fed up standing there rinsing unable to see if its good or bad but rinsing is definately the key ps do yr mams i did & she told me the truth so i rinsed & rinsed again