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Would you get dirt stains on newly painted white house?

cloudnine

Member
Messages
73
Location
Pembrokeshire
Just been asked to clean some windows on a newly painted (6 weeks ago) white house.

Windows arent that dirty.  Owner reckons WFP will leave dirt stains from cleaning windows.

I said nahhhh.. it will be fine.

Im now doubting myself..... 

 
The windows will need cleaning how long will they wait before having them done ??? If the dirt on the windows affects the house paint I would be very suprised 

 
The windows will need cleaning how long will they wait before having them done ??? If the dirt on the windows affects the house paint I would be very suprised 
I'd be very surprised too. I've washed wìndows on freshly painted houses. Never had a problem other than a slight trail running down from the end of the sills if the windows were very dirty. This has always washed off in a couple of seconds. Don't you just hate it when someone who can't do the job tells you how to do it, or that it can't be done? ?

 
Just been asked to clean some windows on a newly painted (6 weeks ago) white house.

Windows arent that dirty.  Owner reckons WFP will leave dirt stains from cleaning windows.

I said nahhhh.. it will be fine.

Im now doubting myself..... 


My advice; just move on - this customer is going to be a problem customer. Over time the customer will notice a couple of dirty water streaks from the cills. He will blame you.

 
Just been asked to clean some windows on a newly painted (6 weeks ago) white house.

Windows arent that dirty.  Owner reckons WFP will leave dirt stains from cleaning windows.

I said nahhhh.. it will be fine.

Im now doubting myself..... 


so what does she want you to do?use ladders?☹️

i wouldnt even take her on.....yes you may leave a bit of dirt on the painted walls over months and months of cleaning her windows......its almost inevitable....i dont want customers that are that fussy.....?

 
My advice would be the same as above, move on. It probably will from time me to time leave a bit of dirt on the paint as it runs down, and the customer will always let you know, just hassle you don’t need. I cleaned one that had stone Sills. Did it 6 months no issues whatsoever. They then had the Sills painted white and nothing but trouble after that, there was nothing wrong with the Sills at all after I’d been but they couldn’t stand them being left wet when they’d spent money having them painted. In the end I cancelled their service. People are funny and once they have something in their head there’s no changing it.

 
Did the job this afternoon / evening as they were desperate to have them cleaned as the house is up for sale.

Due to a strange mix of finishes on the house.. Two thirds of the house i did wfp and ended up trading about 7 windows.

I sneakily did a few of the windows on the white walls with wfp just so i can query it if end up going back.. 

They were adamant that the tiny amount of dirt on the glass (windows were only about 1 year old) would leave marks.

If i go back i'll ask them which ones i did with the wfp ?

 
Oh crumbs! If they're going to go through a forensic examination of your work everytime I think I'd take the advice of the guys who suggested dump them. If it were me, I'd possibly give them a chance for a couple of washes. For sure it would all unfold one way or another. Only reason I say it might be worth giving them a small chance is that I've had similar starts, some of which have turned out to be very good customers once they got to know and trust me. So many stories and incidents of rogue traders, it sometimes takes a while to be trusted. If you're gut feeling is not good about them, I'd go with it though. 

 
Assuming (big assumption) that this person isn't slightly nuts or that this house is unusual as it gets a lot of green algae from nearby trees on a certain aspect I have a couple of points.

If the house is up for sale then this isn't going to be a long term issue.

They may have previously had rendered walls and what happened is that wfp water lightened and cleaned lines in the render so they has light coloured streaks on dirty grey render. Next time you look at velux roof lights on any older tiled house note that beneath the roof light the tiles will often have lighter streaks because the water run off actually cleans away muck.

The other point is that it will take years for any slight lines to noticeably appear and you can just put a bit of extra water on to slough it away but the paint will be tired in 5 - 10 years anyway. 

 
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