Chuck, I agree with you. IN my market windows cleaning is so cheap, we typically sub it out. We make more per hour by not doing the windows on commercial buildings, and letting someone else provide better results than we can for a fraction of the time and price.

Case study: We cleaned this building in September. My favorite cleaner charged me $150 to clean with a water fed pole and pure water system. It would have taken me a day to clean these windows with a pole & squeegee. Even if I had a WFP, that is still chump change to pay out to not have to worry about the windows.

sweetwaterfish wrote:

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Chuck, I agree with you. IN my market windows cleaning is so cheap, we typically sub it out. We make more per hour by not doing the windows on commercial buildings, and letting someone else provide better results than we can for a fraction of the time and price.

Case study: We cleaned this building in September. My favorite cleaner charged me $150 to clean with a water fed pole and pure water system. It would have taken me a day to clean these windows with a pole & squeegee. Even if I had a WFP, that is still chump change to pay out to not have to worry about the windows.

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Thank You!

I tried to make this point earlier on, but no one paid any attention?

The obvious add on to roof cleaning is:

#1. Pressure Washing all but the roof [ I know some jobs up North can be softwashed, but not here in Florida-too many touchy plants! ]

I can do a roof for say $450.00 and add that 2700.00 sq ft house in for pressure washing for $80.00 and it takes 45 minutes. Add a pool enclosure and deck for $95.00 [average] and that's another 45 minutes [less pleasant, with the SH in your face, so I charge more than for a house.] Add a driveway and walk - $65.00 for using a cement surface cleaner, or $50.00 to use roof mix on it and rinse it with a hose. In the end, without driving to another job, my roof job goes from $450 to $650 or more. That's adding $ .

Or, spend 45 minutes, doing something I hate [window cleaning] and make an average of $50 - $60.00 and just before I get my check, the lady says "There are a few spots you need to hit again. 3 misses and 4 runs." Do that and 2 more runs show up. ETC ETC. What you see from outside, is not what she sees from inside. Next thing you know, the $50.00 you quoted her, assuming you had 45 minutes of work, is a 1 hour job and she's still not happy.

Next time her roof needs cleaning, she won't use you, because you left a bad taste in her mouth-all from window cleaning!

The only windows I do anymore, are sliding glass doors, only for a few mgt companies I work for.

Also, like I said before. If you want an extra 50 bucks, instead of playing "window cleaner" cut a branch off a tree for 50 bucks in 10 minutes.

Im not saying its a bad add on for some companies, its just not the right add on for us. However, if you do it, make sure you either 1) hire someone with windows cleaning expertise or 2) Take a class to learn how to do it most efficiently.

Good window cleaners can fly through jobs, bad window cleaners ( like me) can take hours and still leave unsatisfactory results.

Roof Cleaning West Chester PA wrote:

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Excellent point Chuck ... However, I wouldn't be doing it in order to give myself the edge, or cause I need the work, it's just taking advantage of something that's under the umbrella and thinking 5-10 years down the road. Obviously, there's no right or wrong answer, it's just a matter of what fits you and your business.

For me personally, I want nothing to do with the labor, and eventually very little to do with many parts of the business I'm currently involved with. There's nothing wrong with 1 truck and 1 helper, but I envision 5 trucks, 10 laborers and an office manager, while I concentrate on sales and marketing.

That said, a year from now I might agree with you, and conclude that it's not worth it, but like you did, I'll at least give it a shot and decide whether or not it's worth continuing. And to be fair to both of us, we're not exactly comparing apples to apples. With much less competition there's a bit more margin in Chester County, PA.

Anyway, all the different views and input is greatly appreciated. I'm glad there are different opinions on the subject as we can all weigh different perspectives if/when deciding to proceed with the new service. Thank you!!!

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Mike, everyone is different and every area is different.

One year I had 5 employees, plus my wife worked with me on the non-labor end and I absolutely hated it!

Every time I stopped by the jobs, one guy was working and 4 guys having a cigarette break.

Profit with 5 guys sucked!

I would never do it again!

I like a simpler life.

Work crews = hiring, firing, training, theft, making your own competition down the road etc.

To me, it's just a headache.

As a father & son business, I can keep my profit margin up to around 65-70%

With 5 employees, it was reversed.

If 5 trucks, 10 laborers and an office manager is what you want, I certainly hope you succeed and can handle the headaches.

I know some people can. Not me.

I'm sure you will do well in business, however you decide to do it.

Dan, the problem with that is that cleaning those windows with a squeegee and a pole is usually sloppy unless you are a really good window cleaner. I didn't realize how easy it was to leave a streak (even with professional equipment, not HD stuff) until I cleaned my first windows at a customers home! It took me all day just to clean 25 windows, which is why we invested into pure water equipment. There's no sense in us not doing the work because it's so hard to find a window cleaner that isn't pressure washing too.

At this point in time, we are transitioning into cleaning windows completely WITHOUT a squeegee and marketing our pure water cleaning services as safer and more effective. Cleaning with a squeegee takes FOREVER on a home like that if window cleaning isn't your main thing, but that is probably a 1 hour job with a waterfed pole (if there are no screens). We'll be utilizing pure water technology inside and outside of the home starting next week and at a minimum of $10 per window inside and out, that's a good chunk of change added to your job. It's a simple upsell and people love clean windows once they realize how dirty they probably are.

We average around $100 per hour cleaning windows, investing in a waterfed pole is a good idea.

Another plus is that you can clean windows in the winter time, adding some alcohol to your mix allows you to clean in the cold without the water freezing right away and it can at least keep your people busy if you normally have to shut down in the winter. Last year we had a good amount of customers who wanted their windows cleaned before the holidays and realized it was a good opportunity to keep working.

I want to get into cleaning solar panels

Roof Cleaning Severna Park MD wrote:

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Dan, the problem with that is that cleaning those windows with a squeegee and a pole is usually sloppy unless you are a really good window cleaner. I didn't realize how easy it was to leave a streak (even with professional equipment, not HD stuff) until I cleaned my first windows at a customers home! It took me all day just to clean 25 windows, which is why we invested into pure water equipment. There's no sense in us not doing the work because it's so hard to find a window cleaner that isn't pressure washing too.

At this point in time, we are transitioning into cleaning windows completely WITHOUT a squeegee and marketing our pure water cleaning services as safer and more effective. Cleaning with a squeegee takes FOREVER on a home like that if window cleaning isn't your main thing, but that is probably a 1 hour job with a waterfed pole (if there are no screens). We'll be utilizing pure water technology inside and outside of the home starting next week and at a minimum of $10 per window inside and out, that's a good chunk of change added to your job. It's a simple upsell and people love clean windows once they realize how dirty they probably are.

We average around $100 per hour cleaning windows, investing in a waterfed pole is a good idea.

Another plus is that you can clean windows in the winter time, adding some alcohol to your mix allows you to clean in the cold without the water freezing right away and it can at least keep your people busy if you normally have to shut down in the winter. Last year we had a good amount of customers who wanted their windows cleaned before the holidays and realized it was a good opportunity to keep working.

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 Winter work!

Mike, how do you do the exterior windows, squeegee?