Welcome to the UK Window Cleaning Forums

Starting or own a window cleaning business? We're a network of window cleaners sharing advice, tips & experience. Rounds for sale & more. Join us today!

Diy Brush

yer i make all my brush heads! i'm trying to find time to get a video sorted and put up of one being made!

 
In the early days when the best Vikan automotive brush weighed a ton, we bought Bentley brushes from Morrisons and fitted them with jets. They were lovely and light but didn't make good WFP brushes. They were too flocked and trapped too much dirt. They were also stiff and the bristles didn't splay, especially in the winter. I still have a Bentley brush on the van that I cut the centre bristles off by about 1/2" (if I remember correctly) hoping to get a better clean. I never tried it as Gardiners just launched their Super Light range.

They were great - I bought a small selection of them. Now they are our brush of choice, we have no need to take a step backward. Messing around with brushes was rather distracting, time that was better spent focusing on the job and earning. Yes it may save you a couple of quid per brush, but it could end up costing more in wasted time.

I'm still using the flocked Super Light I first bought, and although it's looking a little tired, it still has nearly all its bristles and still does a good job. I went though 2 or 3 Bentleys a year and although they cost about £3.00 each, they still had to be modified. It would have cost me more in Bentley's and time modifying them than the price of the Gardiner's brush IMHO.

Spruce.

 
A good wfp brush will earn can earn anywhere between £10,000 £20,000 before it should be replaced, not because the brush cant be used any more, a quality made brush will last many years, but because it will start to lose some of its ability and this affects cleaning time; your time will be much more valuable than the cost of a replacement brush stock.

Some of the worst brushes can up to take 3-4 times longer to get the same results over other brushes; still you can save £20 or even £50

Richard

 
A good wfp brush will earn can earn anywhere between £10,000 £20,000 before it should be replaced, not because the brush cant be used any more, a quality made brush will last many years, but because it will start to lose some of its ability and this affects cleaning time; your time will be much more valuable than the cost of a replacement brush stock.

Some of the worst brushes can up to take 3-4 times longer to get the same results over other brushes; still you can save £20 or even £50

Richard
ahhh the salemans voice strikes again! lol only messing richard, with the brushes i make and use, its still cheaper for me to use them than spend on a brush over £40!

 
Your right rcproperty, when I post about wfp brushes in part it is always going to be sales pitch. But I can honestly I use my brushes because they can be used faster than anything else available.

It is cheaper to spend anything less than £40 on a wfp brush, window cleaning isn’t about selling a product; window cleaning is a face to face type business – providing a service – that is charged accordingly by how long a job takes.

If I was to use one of the worst brushes that is marketed and sold for wfp window cleaning, over the course of a year I would lose at least the equivalent of 3 months time or income, but it would also be cheaper for me to use them when compared to spending over £40 on a brush!

It’s a fine line for me to post about my brushes I wouldn’t want to sell a brush to someone who couldn’t exploit their use; the faster cleaning my brushes can do, does mean they can provide a much higher hourly rate. But they won’t be for everyone and you will always get some people good at saving money rather than making money.

Richard

 
I don't want to make a brush to save money, I just want something to do!!

I bought a gardiners sill brush just for fascia cleaning, cost just over £40... Has made me around £400 so far...

I also have 2 gardiners super lite dual trims, 1 stiff 1 med mix.... When I was ordering there is just so many bloody options... Right just give me that one!!!! For some reason I just don't feel like they are any good?

Im new to wfp so I'm taking ages anyway.. Duno if im scrubbing too much, not rinsing enough, rinsing too much....

Richard- what is it exactly that makes your brushes better than others? I already know about the money and quicker, is it the bristles?

 
i have spent about £20 on my brushes and for the year sofar it have made me over £9,000, and all happy customers, so why should i spend over £40 for one that dose the same job, that will only eat more into my profit and less money i will make!

 
I don't want to make a brush to save money, I just want something to do!!

I bought a gardiners sill brush just for fascia cleaning, cost just over £40... Has made me around £400 so far...

I also have 2 gardiners super lite dual trims, 1 stiff 1 med mix.... When I was ordering there is just so many bloody options... Right just give me that one!!!! For some reason I just don't feel like they are any good?

Im new to wfp so I'm taking ages anyway.. Duno if im scrubbing too much, not rinsing enough, rinsing too much....

Richard- what is it exactly that makes your brushes better than others? I already know about the money and quicker, is it the bristles?

Yer could be, I don’t want to turn this into how much people can earn. So for an example only - a lot of small commercial work I do,I can charge very competativly giving the customer a great service and better price, this is important; with this work I can charge as little as £20 through to £35 maximum and average £70 per hour. If I were to use a un-suitable brush the work would still get done the customer will still be very happy but I cant expect to maintain that hourly rate with a slower brush, why would I even want to use a slower brush? So I can save a £100 per year on brushes.

I offer 3 very different brush(es) bristles/monofilaments and a ‘real’ Hybrid Brush, I bet with most window cleaners there is a good chance they might have purchased a number of brushes, beliveing them to be different, when in fact the actual diffrences are minimal because they probably have the same or similar types of bristl/monofilament.

Richard

 
What would you suggest Richard I have brodex brushes and they are **** they hold all the little bits in the brissles then drop them onto the glass and it's really peeing me off and taking a lot more time to clean because I'm chasing bits around the glass and have to rinse for longer

 
would have to disagree with the terms of slower brush and fast brushes! there isnt really any diffrence apart from the user themselfs.

and from a business point of view, basicly you are in the business to make money, full stop.

for example, if i have a comercial job each month costing £70 each time thats £840 for the year.

you buy the brush at £40 for it you make £800 less water etc.

my brush £10, dose the same job in the same time but i make £830 less water etc. so i make more profit than anyone else.

 
What would you suggest Richard I have brodex brushes and they are **** they hold all the little bits in the brissles then drop them onto the glass and it's really peeing me off and taking a lot more time to clean because I'm chasing bits around the glass and have to rinse for longer
what he might suggest is buy his brushes coz, as he puts it, they are more superior and faster than any other brush out there, but guessing that as he only uses these and sells these, he wont be saying buy any other make of brush!

 
What would you suggest Richard I have brodex brushes and they are **** they hold all the little bits in the brissles then drop them onto the glass and it's really peeing me off and taking a lot more time to clean because I'm chasing bits around the glass and have to rinse for longer

Paul, get rid of it. Or you could clean the brush more often, it may still be slower to use than other brushes but will help.

Richard

 
would have to disagree with the terms of slower brush and fast brushes! there isnt really any diffrence apart from the user themselfs.

and from a business point of view, basicly you are in the business to make money, full stop.

for example, if i have a comercial job each month costing £70 each time thats £840 for the year.

you buy the brush at £40 for it you make £800 less water etc.

my brush £10, dose the same job in the same time but i make £830 less water etc. so i make more profit than anyone else.

rcproperty, you could be more wrong about brushes. You can disagree with me and you’re entitled to your opinion, Method of cleaning or the use of wfp will definitely differ with users.

I make and sell wfp brushes test them (and others) and they have been independently tested, I also have advised two other brush manufacturers on making wfp brushes, so my knowledge is a bit more than just my personnel opinion.

As mentioned before it’s not the cost of the brush that’s important, how long does it take to clean that job for £70 x 12 - how competitive is your price compared to the other quotes? How many jobs/hours have you got or hours covered at this price? Etc etc, I think the choice of brush is important, but we will have to agree to disagree.

Richard

 
Paul, get rid of it. Or you could clean the brush more often, it may still be slower to use than other brushes but will help.

Richard
I have to clean it daily and it's only 3 month old I have 2 of them and they are both the same and they do add time on to my cleans because of excess rinsing that I need to do

 
Paul, in that case you have little choice to get rid of the brushes or at least stop using them as soon as possible. If it’s as slow to use as you describe, it should be easy to find a faster brush and at a similar price. Keep using it and it will cost you a lot more in lost time and any possible revenue.

For regular work, up to 30ft in height, I only rinse occasionally anyway – just when its needed – You can do this with the Red Polyester Aerial Brush, you do need to be confident and refine your cleaning method, but this (old) idea of having to do a final rinse on every single pane of glass is something I stopped doing in 2010.

Richard

 
You never answered my question tho Richard... Why? Are they faster?

One day maybe you will get the chance to try one, and then you will see and will be able to compare it to all the other brushes you have tried.

You will never be able to use the brush as fast as someone who has been using them for some time, you will over clean and still rinse a lot of window un-necessarily, and old habits are difficult to change.

My initial advice to using the Aerial Brush is to maintain brush pressure on the glass and start using less brush strokes and get into the habit of - not rising -, you only need to look at the glass.

Richard

 
One day maybe you will get the chance to try one, and then you will see and will be able to compare it to all the other brushes you have tried.

You will never be able to use the brush as fast as someone who has been using them for some time, you will over clean and still rinse a lot of window un-necessarily, and old habits are difficult to change.

My initial advice to using the Aerial Brush is to maintain brush pressure on the glass and start using less brush strokes and get into the habit of - not rising -, you only need to look at the glass.

Richard
Seriously not an answer Richard and thats from someone that knows nothing about wfp brushes or sales, you keep saying your brush is faster, you keep saying you designed it yet you can't answer (or wont). Sorry mate you're either an incredibly bad salesman, it isn't faster or you don't actually know, the latter only leading to one obvious conclusion.
 
Hey i dont know much about brushes but at the end of the day a brush is a brush and if your happy with it then keep using it /emoticons/smile.png

If its not picking up the dirt then get a new one... /emoticons/smile.png

And in my opinion i dont think a brush can be faster.. Its how u use the brush that counts /emoticons/smile.png

 
Back
Top