Beginners Bewilderment.

[brianroberts569]

I havent window cleaned for a few years then i was trad only. Since redundancy forced me back on the job market i soon came to realise there isn't a lot of work out there. So i made the decision to start up a wfp round and make a few bob that way. I now have almost everything sorted out except pole and brush. I have spent endless hours on ebay, websites and youtube researching brushes and poles. I am no closer to a decision now than i was at the start. So i am asking you lads, you are the ones that know. I will be concentrating on domestic to start. please help me with advice on a good allrounder.

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

Facelift or CLX

 

[Njones]

http://gardinerpolesystems.co.uk/acatalog/sl-xtrade-telescopic-carbon-pole.html

CLX if the SLX is over budget,..

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

I does what it says on the tin. It also feels good!!!

 

[bluemonkey]

how much money do you have to spend on a pole?

 

[Jeff Brimble]

Hi Brian, start with a backpack, connect to a B&Q harris £15 alu pole, stick a brush on and GO. Not that simple you need time and its the wrong time of the year, but hope you make it. Ladders have their uses but try to avoid going up them so you dont fall off. Save your ife go waterfed.

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

If your going 100% WFP your going to need more than a backpack. Go for a Van mount, I tried the backpack even though I only used it now and again. I still preferred spending an extra few quid for a van mount saves a hell of a lot of time.

In saying that depends on what budget you have mate

 

[Martyn]

Gardiners SL-X 22 with a medium mixed brush, or as said above CL-X if budget tight.

I hate to disagree with Jeff whom I respect greatly, but Harris poles are horrible, though I suppose it would be a start.

 

[Posh]

Use 2 Harris poles and both ave seved me well & do everything I need them to do. They are very good to get you started and cheap to make

 

[rcproperty]

ive used a harris pole for the last 2 years and they are great, nice and light and dirt cheap!

but if you want and budget can streach to it, the Facelift poles are great poles and then there is the clx or the slx

 

[deno]

Check out the reviews on Tecbuk brushes by a few members on this site, rated very highly, like you i have done a lot of online research,

i am 100 per cent trad at the moment.

From what information my own research gave me, i have order a couple of tecbuk brushes with a few add ons, Richard has been fantastic to deal with,

i would recommend him highly.

http://www.wfp-brush...sh.co.uk/home This is the website, but check out a couple of reviews made by Belfast yesterday, and ask him some questions..

As for poles, even though i've never clean with wfp before, what i've learned is the stiffer the pole (at least that's what the girls say..!) the better,

less flex means more scrub power/pressure is directed onto brush head, giving greater control and meaning your energy is being used

for what you need it used for, cleaning the glass.!

So my recommendation would be get the most rigid pole you can comfortably afford, all i need to find out now is what is the most rigid 35' pole on the market..

Good luck Brian, i wish you every success in your new venture

Deno

 

[mark m]

Check out the reviews on Tecbuk brushes by a few members on this site, rated very highly, like you i have done a lot of online research,

i am 100 per cent trad at the moment.

From what information my own research gave me, i have order a couple of tecbuk brushes with a few add ons, Richard has been fantastic to deal with,

i would recommend him highly.

http://www.wfp-brush...sh.co.uk/home This is the website, but check out a couple of reviews made by Belfast yesterday, and ask him some questions..

As for poles, even though i've never clean with wfp before, what i've learned is the stiffer the pole (at least that's what the girls say..!) the better,

less flex means more scrub power/pressure is directed onto brush head, giving greater control and meaning your energy is being used

for what you need it used for, cleaning the glass.!

So my recommendation would be get the most rigid pole you can comfortably afford, all i need to find out now is what is the most rigid 35' pole on the market..

Good luck Brian, i wish you every success in your new venture

Deno

i am sorry i disagree with you regarding the brushs to use as you will find if you look on the forum belfast is the only one who has done wfp cleaning with a bit of experence, the rest of us disagree with his choice

 

[deno]

i am sorry i disagree with you regarding the brushs to use as you will find if you look on the forum belfast is the only one who has done wfp cleaning with a bit of experence, the rest of us disagree with his choice

Really, ok, that's fair enough..
What brushes do you use? How do you find they compare to Tecbuk brushes

Cheers Mark

 

[Belfastcleaning]

If anyone asks me what brush, I will recommend them to tecbuk.

I am now equipped with a red polyester dual trim for regular cleans.. And also have a boars hair flat trim for first cleans..

The polyester brush feels great on the glass, great over leaded windows, glides quicker, feels likes its cleaning better and for me beats 3 gardiners brushes I bought..

I will be using the boars hair on all the badly mucked up windows. The boars hair gives excellent scrubbing power and makes the job easy. None of the brushes I have used comes close to the scrubbing power in this little baby...

There is a lot of brushes I have not used, but I'm happy with tecbuk range now..

For a pole.. SLX or CLX

 

[Richard]

I havent window cleaned for a few years then i was trad only. Since redundancy forced me back on the job market i soon came to realise there isn't a lot of work out there. So i made the decision to start up a wfp round and make a few bob that way. I now have almost everything sorted out except pole and brush. I have spent endless hours on ebay, websites and youtube researching brushes and poles. I am no closer to a decision now than i was at the start. So i am asking you lads, you are the ones that know. I will be concentrating on domestic to start. please help me with advice on a good allrounder.

Hi Brian,

It’s all too easy to get overwhelmed with information when you start.

For residential work a 25ft pole (30ft reach) should get most of the windows you come across. With window cleaning poles the stiffer or more rigid the pole is, and then it will be easier to use with less flex and faster to clean overall.

Get 2 brushes one for your regular maintenance cleans, this brush should be kept clean as possible, this will enable you to work fast and greatly reduce the chance of any spotting on the glass, the 2nd brush can used for first cleans and any other dirty work to remove oily road grime etc.

Good luck

Richard

 

[Martyn]

Could anybody who has used a proper decent window pole really like the Harris? The clamps are a pain in the proverbial, the sections spin, if you tighten enough to stop the spinning they're a sod to loosen off and while you are adjusting one clamp it often moves the other, and the clamps wear quickly. (Although there is an easy repair dodge for this) The difference is like night and day, and makes a big difference to your enjoyment of the working day.

 

[balaia]

ive got te tecbuk red polyester brush and prefer it to the gardiners superlight brush. ive also got the clx pole and i think it is c..p. im forever messing about with the clamps.each to their own though i suppose.

 

[Posh]

Could anybody who has used a proper decent window pole really like the Harris? The clamps are a pain in the proverbial, the sections spin, if you tighten enough to stop the spinning they're a sod to loosen off and while you are adjusting one clamp it often moves the other, and the clamps wear quickly. (Although there is an easy repair dodge for this) The difference is like night and day, and makes a big difference to your enjoyment of the working day.

We're not saying there the best we're saying there good for a start up pole on a low budget. Obviously if you've used a gardeners or somet it's gonna be better but so's the price. For a start up & for someone like me with a backpack that only comes out now & again it's great. Had no trouble with the clamps myself but maybe I've been lucky.

 

[brianroberts569]

Thanks very much guys. Very inciteful and very helpful. I will go through the posts individually and look up each one. I suppose i will eventually make a decision and work with it. Once i have a couple of months under my belt i will rethink and maybe upgrade. In an ideal world i would buy a full van set up. That might be an option in the future. But for now i would really like to thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

Brian

 

[rcproperty]

no problem, good luck with it all and just ask if you need to know anything else no matter how small or basic you might think it is!