For some reason i have got into the horrible habit of over cleaning the glass in recent month. I normally agitate the same pane 4 times over!!! Its over kill! How many agitations do you guys get away with On a standard 4 or 8 weekly clean? Sometimes i feel like 2 isn't enough? Also does anyone know how to get out of this awful habit? Its been eating up my time during the shorter winter days.
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How much do you agitate the glass
- Thread starter Kieran h
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On regular maintenance cleans, one swoop over is sufficient.
The way to get out of ‘the awful habit’ is to stop doing it ???
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It depends what’s on them , if covered in seagulls poo then it will need more passes than just a bit of dust , if salty again it will need more we dont have a hard and fast rule of how many times to go over a window I think it comes with experience you know what each window will need to get good results
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What is this mythical maintenance clean you speak of? ? I've never seen a window where one swoop would do the trick, maybe it's because I live on a small rock? I see brushes described as suitable for maintenance cleans and think to myself, move on, that's not the brush for me.
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The mythical maintenance clean does exist. ? I'm about as far as inland as you can be in Britain. I rarely have to do more than just tickle the glass for about two or three very light agitations and a rinse down on the glass and of course a scrub on dried in stuff when needed. Brushes last me forever. I imagine it's a lot different near the sea but I have no personal experience.
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Most of our work in Cornwall is costal and covered in salt and seagulls poo which is greasy and takes a bit of scrubbing if baked on the glass for a couple of weeks , we also do work up to London ,and find the windows there are different to clean as they are covered in traffic film this is also greasy but usually comes off quicker , we also do some more rural work near Bath and Bristol this is far easier and quicker than the other work we do it’s more dust based and comes off the glass easily ,so I think speed of work type of brushes needed will vary.
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Sounds like you are obsessed with hot water maybe you should try it yourself ???
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ched999uk
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still bit confused about how much scrubbing and rinsing I should do. Currently I spend about 70% of the cleaning time scrubbing on each window then spend the rest 30% of cleaning time on rinsing. When I rinse, I start from the top left corner to the right then moving down doing zig zags.
RWCleaning
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Varies on how dirty surely, most of my work is 6 weekly maintenance cleans, so 4 passes along the top sideways just under the top frame, then up down, up down (so 4 passes) doing that across the glass, then 3 or 4 passes along the bottom sideways just above the bottom frames, 1 quick rinse, generally just along the top of the window, (unless it’s hydrophobic Then I’ll rinse to the bottom) but on a medium to high flow at the moment.
But I’ve got some 12 weeklys in ‘dirty areas’ lol, some take 3 times as much scrubbing.
But I’ve got some 12 weeklys in ‘dirty areas’ lol, some take 3 times as much scrubbing.
mike007
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If you think it needs more agitations then do more....better that then thinking you have walked away from a window wondering whether it is cleaned properly. And the awful habit is probably confidence in your ability I am afraid. Just my opinion and I am not an expert in how the brain works, but I reckon it is a confidence issue. But practice and experience sorts that out.
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No one is going to tell you exactly how you should clean your customer's windows wfp because there are too many variables.
Look at Darrans videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSQ9VL4EeZOBX3vgEQe5pIA
Look at Alex's tutorial
BTW, I'm not an advocate of Perry Tait. He isn't a window cleaner and never has been. He's a salesman. If there was more money in selling tomatoes then he would sell them.
If cleaning that window takes you 90 seconds, then next time try to clean it in 60 seconds. (Just count time off - one thousand and one, one thousand and 2, etc.) Then try to reduce it a bit more. But just work on that window so you can go back and inspect it to ensure the job is right to your and your customer's standards.
There is your standards influenced by your work ethic and your customers standards. I always try to ensure my standards are higher than my customer's standards as my reputation is based on that.
When you swap over to wfp you will have to work through major doubting spells that you have done the right thing. The house you cleaned in 20 minutes trad has now taken twice as long on your first wfp clean. Its happened to all of us. Stick with it and slowly increase speed as you get more experience. It's the old baby example. You can't run before you have learnt to crawl and walk. Don't stress out about the time its taking you. Speed comes with experience. To gain experience takes time.
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