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Reach For The Glass

Active member
Messages
752
Location
Kent
Hey guys

As most know I don't window clean yet. But just sitting in hospital car park and a van pulls up and whips his hose and carbon pole out.

He switched the water on and cleaned 12 ground floor windows 3ft x 4ft and a set of doors in about 90 seconds. Yes seconds!!!

He gave them a tiny squirt with water and a quick up and down with the brush whilst rinsing it at the same time as brushing.

In his van and taken off.

I'm watching the windows as I type. They are drying completely spotted like someone had a sprinkler on them a few days ago. It's very sunny on the windows but this should not cause an issue right?

Just wondering why they are so spotty? As I require some tips for when I start just curious what's wrong here?

By the way just glass didn't touch 1 grey aluminum frame except accidently with the brush sides.

Cheers guys

Ps looks f*****g awful.

 
Hey guys
As most know I don't window clean yet. But just sitting in hospital car park and a van pulls up and whips his hose and carbon pole out.

He switched the water on and cleaned 12 ground floor windows 3ft x 4ft and a set of doors in about 90 seconds. Yes seconds!!!

He gave them a tiny squirt with water and a quick up and down with the brush whilst rinsing it at the same time as brushing.

In his van and taken off.

I'm watching the windows as I type. They are drying completely spotted like someone had a sprinkler on them a few days ago. It's very sunny on the windows but this should not cause an issue right?

Just wondering why they are so spotty? As I require some tips for when I start just curious what's wrong here?

By the way just glass didn't touch 1 grey aluminum frame except accidently with the brush sides.

Cheers guys

Ps looks f*****g awful.
in the trade known as a cowboy

yee haa and off into the sunset he rides :clap:

 
if they dont pull him up regarding the after clean viewing they wont know if they are clear or they have dirt spots on them, he is probably waiting for this to happen, then he will probably not be seen cleaning them again.

a lot just dont check there work when fiying,

 
The answer is fairly simple, he's doing what I call a 'token gesture'

Where basically he either knows they don't care about the quality of work, or this is what he can get away with...

But it's spotting because he's not rinsing the glass, after giving them a good scrub. So he's just leaving the dirty water on the windows to dry...

Basically a good rinse is the most important part of wfp...

 
As Jake says the spotting is most likely the result of not enough rinsing but also remember when you do get going that you need to keep your TDS seriously low preferably at zero so that you can avoid spotting also.

If his waters perfect the cause is incorrect rinsing, if he's a cowboy it could just be sh*t water quality.

 
I'm guessing these are hospital windows? If so, then commercial work like that (council or large commercial buildings) tend be pretty much a 'no one cares attitude' and Windies always seem to slap dash them...

 
There's a firm of window 'cleaners' ( no names ) in my area that absolutely encourage it. They have some full time staff, part time and offer franchises. The work load is insane i was told and nigh on impossible to complete to satisfactory standards. In ALL weather and a minimum of 30 properties daily for approx. a sixth of the day's takings. If the customer rings to complain they promise a re clean within 48 hrs. So if you fail on a few because of time/ weather...tough luck. You'll be back out within two day's cleaning them again or you won't get your money at the end of the month.

They have a rather large contract near me and i've watched them 'cleaning'. Always a different op.

So yes indeed Reach.....does make you wonder.

 
He cleaned just 12 windows and went :confused:. They won't be dry in that short a space of time to see if there's spotting. If there's still droplets on the glass you won't be able to see spotting until it's dry. You must have good eyesight reach for the glass.

 
I was sitting 8ft or so away.

As I say sun beaming on the glass mate he went I watched out of curiosity and when the dried tgere were 100% water spots all over the glass.

Shame I couldn't video the guy quick enough.

 
Contract work is a lot different to domestic. Councils are not looking for someone that takes a pride in thier work as much as Mrs Miggins at 41 is. They want a cheap price, and no one is about who cares to check up whats going on- they have thier own jobs to think about. If he's getting away with it then its a win for the windy.

 
I'm not disputing who wins or loses etc i was just curious about why his work had a finish like this. Was it time spent cleaning , not enough rinsing etc etc.

I'm not bashing people or anything it was just for my own "training" shall we say.

 
Personally i don't care if it's a council job and no one would care i still couldn't walk away knowing it was a :turd: job

Maybe i am in the minority taking pride in my work

 
I'm not disputing who wins or loses etc i was just curious about why his work had a finish like this. Was it time spent cleaning , not enough rinsing etc etc.
I'm not bashing people or anything it was just for my own "training" shall we say.
Window cleaning is easy - you wash the glass until there is no more dirt and then rinse it away. In his case there are 2 almost certainties that others have mentioned already;

1; he didn't wash the glass properly,

2: he didn't rinse properly to get rid of the dirt

and

3: there is always the probability that his water quality wasn't pure either.

We watched a van pull up at a local library a few years ago. It was a quick wash and rinse. I wandered over to his van. It had a blue 200 liter plastic drum lying on its side with a large hole cut in it. The drum was wedged into place to stop it rolling about. He filled the drum up with tap water and pumped the water through a di vessel to his brush. The resin was well spent as the spots left behind after the water dried were about what our local water would leave on the window.

I went into the library and asked if the result was acceptable - they weren't bothered.

Our local branch of Natwest (now closed) also had cowboys cleaning their windows. The windows were done very early in the morning when there was no one around and were terrible. The branch manager wasn't bothered either.

So in your case, you have to be the judge and decide what is acceptable to you. In cases like this then you will always exceed your customers expectations. If you are local, people will notice. Each window you clean is YOUR advertising board. Use it wisely and you will succeed.

Commercial is all about price. If we can't do a good job within a price bracket, then we aren't interested in the job. After all, its our reputation.

 
I completely agree with what people are saying about it being commercial on this scale and nobody really caring or quality checking the work. Personally I wouldn't do it. Unless it was mega money and mega work so couldn't possibly do it to how I wanted to.

And also if no one really gave a s*** about how good was then there isn't really an issue I suppose.

Like I said I was just curious as to why and what possibilities caused such a **** job so I don't make theses mistakes.

 
I completely agree with what people are saying about it being commercial on this scale and nobody really caring or quality checking the work.
Personally I wouldn't do it.

Unless it was mega money and mega work so couldn't possibly do it to how I wanted to.

And also if no one really gave a s*** about how good was then there isn't really an issue I suppose.

Like I said I was just curious as to why and what possibilities caused such a **** job so I don't make theses mistakes.
Personally I wouldn't do it. Good

And also if no one really gave a s*** about how good was then there isn't really an issue I suppose. I disagree. Its not about them, its how you apply your standards. I would hate anyone to think that I did a slap dash job at any time. Sorry, but that's me. I would never lower my standards to that extent.

We did a job cleaning a few Sainsbury's locals in the area several years ago. We eventually lost the job to inhouse cleaners appointed by headoffice, but the store manager fought to keep us on as we did the job to a high standard and he knew the replacements wouldn't. We also did them between 5 and 6 in the morning before they opened up - the replacements did it during normal working hours causing a disturbance for their customers.

We misquoted on a pub job we do. Its taking much longer than we calculated it would take. But so be it, we will not cut corners to fit in with the price we quoted.

 
I've said it before but it is all about reputation

I wouldn't have got as busy as i have already without a good reputation

If work is finding you due to customers recommending you it makes life a whole lot easier

Wouldn't get that if i was doing a lash up job if i thought i could get away with it

Plus i personally believe you get paid to do a job..whether paid a lot or underpriced you still quoted that price so you do the job you are paid for to the best of your ability

 
The same with people who avoid top frames etc to make life easier

It notices when you look at a window and the frames or sills haven't been done

Exactly how i got 2 new jobs last Saturday

1 person had 2 of their windows egged due to disagreement between their son and some lads

She had them cleaned by her normal guy on the monday before but he was a fly by night guy who sporadically turned up

I was recommended so went to do it and commented on the dark green sills and light green/grey frames

Once i had done they were amazed at the colour of the frames and sills and the fact i could also reach the window that the usual guy couldn't in the roof conversion

Now i am their windie and their next door neighbours

If he did a proper job he would still have the work

 
I've said it before but it is all about reputationI wouldn't have got as busy as i have already without a good reputation

If work is finding you due to customers recommending you it makes life a whole lot easier

Wouldn't get that if i was doing a lash up job if i thought i could get away with it

Plus i personally believe you get paid to do a job..whether paid a lot or underpriced you still quoted that price so you do the job you are paid for to the best of your ability
If work is finding you due to customers recommending you it makes life a whole lot easier

This is so true @Reach For The Glass. It takes time and a lot of effort to build a solid round. Building it on recommendations makes life so much easier as we have found that by far the majority stick with us. But it takes time initially to build up that relationship and trust with your customers. We haven't canvassed for work for years. Last week we picked up 4 new customers on the back of existing customers, another potential one and one walking by noticed how much effort my son was putting into the first clean of one of those recommendations.

There will always be a number of window cleaners in our industry who don't care. They will mainly be the ones who are employed by a company where the culture is to work the employee to death for minimal pay. So the employee will try to find ways to short cut the system. This isn't peculiar to our industry, its everywhere. Its the reason why 'Recommend a Trader' has become popular.

We heard of a window cleaning company who decided that the best way of tracking his employees was to fit an electronic tag in one of the windows of the business they were contracted to clean. They were then given a reader that they pointed to this tag which recorded the time and date they were there. An invoice was then raised to head-office with the 'proof of clean' printout.

The stupid cleaners rushed around all the business they had to clean that day and activated their reader. They hadn't worked out that questions would be raised when they had finished all those cleans in a couple of hours.

So management decided to fit each van with a tracker. The lads then just sat in the van for the estimated time it would take to clean the windows, activated the reader and then off to the next business and repeated the process. It just goes to show the caliber of those people.

One of the lessons from the hospital experience @Reach For The Glass is how not to clean windows. As you gain experience you do need to push the limits with regard to cleaning speed as you can't afford to spend an hour cleaning one window (hyperbole). But whilst doing this you need to check and 'sign off' each window as a satisfactory result. I am inclined to spend too much time on a window and over clean it. My son in law does far less washing and rinsing than I do and the results are great. I used to check up on him in the early days. I don't bother now. The ticket he puts through the door has my phone number on it and the calls I mainly get are to do with where the customer has hidden the money for him to collect.



 
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