ace3 - Starting from scratch - WFP Blog

[mark m]

Welcome to the forum you will find loads of help on here and if you get time try and pop to my show on the 9th Sept it is the largest window cleaning show in the world and there is some great discounts on the day

 

[ace3]

Hi Phil, good luck mate,

Hi ace3
Good to hear your progress. I am just looking at starting up so it's comforting to see your progress & success at canvassing. What is your average price & what size of houses you doing?

With regards charging your trolley a friend of mine has taken the board of his trolley (I think he said it unbolted) so it can be taken in to charge & also uses it with a tank system instead.

Hi Phil, good luck mate

I have some £10, some £25, some £30 and a £40 house, think my average is just over £20 a house.

 

[ace3]

Hi all, I was making some more pure water today and before I put the hose into the water butt I got a tds meter reading of 14ppm which I was shocked at.

I took the di vessel out and got a reading of everything separately

Water from tap = 320ppm

Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

After including di with resin = 14ppm

My thinking was that the ro is working well so I gave the di with resin a shake and after I did that I got a reading of 6ppm

I then took that cartridge out and placed a new cartridge with resin in that vessel and I am once again getting 0ppm.

Question is, is that how quickly resin stops being efficient? I had produced maybe 1000litres of water before this point?

Seems like it stopped bringing the water down to 0ppm really quickly?!

The pictures below are of the di which only made the water 14ppm and 6ppm after a shake.....is it just a case of buying resin and then emptying out that old resin and refilling again?

 

[philb]

Hi Phil, good luck mate,

Hi Phil, good luck mate

I have some £10, some £25, some £30 and a £40 house, think my average is just over £20 a house.

wow are the £25+ really big houses? how often are you cleaning them? What area are you in?

 

[Iron Giant]

View attachment 14352 View attachment 14353 View attachment 14354 View attachment 14355 Hi all, is there any way that I can remove the battery on my trolley and charge it so I don't have to lug the trolley in and out of my house each night?
I've taken a picture of the connections, any help is appreciated

Probably more of chew on and time consuming to take battery out each night and then refit it every morning as its set up to charged on the trolley, When I had a Purefreedom trolley it was the same, But when I had to change the battery I had to take one of the wheels off and the battery box was glued to the trolley took me about 10-15 minutes to sort it out wouldn't want to do that every night just to charge the battery .

 

[Iron Giant]

Hi all, I was making some more pure water today and before I put the hose into the water butt I got a tds meter reading of 14ppm which I was shocked at.
I took the di vessel out and got a reading of everything separately

Water from tap = 320ppm

Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

After including di with resin = 14ppm

My thinking was that the ro is working well so I gave the di with resin a shake and after I did that I got a reading of 6ppm

I then took that cartridge out and placed a new cartridge with resin in that vessel and I am once again getting 0ppm.

Question is, is that how quickly resin stops being efficient? I had produced maybe 1000litres of water before this point?

Seems like it stopped bringing the water down to 0ppm really quickly?!

The pictures below are of the di which only made the water 14ppm and 6ppm after a shake.....is it just a case of buying resin and then emptying out that old resin and refilling again?View attachment 14359 View attachment 14360

That di is tiny so the resin will get spent quickly, But no different to a point even if you had a much larger standard di vessel you would just be changing resin less often, I would maybe stick with what you have got as it's a whole load easier to change resin.

 

[adamangler]

Hi Adam, i remembered that you had struggled with getting work from newly sold houses in another thread, I hope you catch a break soon mate!
I have created an excel document to help with my canvassing as my plan is to get a perfect picture of each road that i canvass. Im Going to keep on knocking until i have an answer from each door on the street.

This will hopefully keep my round compact but also highlight any gaps in the market and possibly any issues with my pricing of jobs (if i get a lot of "no thanks" after giving a quote ill know my prices are possibly too high)

heres my template below, feel free to comment if you think ive missed anything

View attachment 14279

Nah not really, getting a bit fed up of it now to be honest. Spent way too much money on advertising and constantly dealing with messers and people moving out etc.

I have about 220 customers now, it was up to 250 after i had a laod of canvassing done but its whittled down again,

.

i initially had a target of 300 windows a month and do nothing else but changed my mind and decided im going to try and just stick to 200 or so regulars and target more add on work instead.

I need to start saving now anyway, wasted too much money these last couple of years

if you can canvass yoursefl thats great, its the best way and you will save a fortune.

 

[ace3]

Thanks iron giant I'll keep doing what I'm doing then!

I'm just trying to finish off the houses I canvassed and then I'll go out canvassing again adam, cheers for the info about leafleting etc I'll stay clear and just knock myself.

Update:

Completed 2 x £30 and 3 x £10 jobs today. Think my technique is getting better however I rarely look at the sills/frames and think I've done a brilliant job.

No matter how hard I scrub and then rinse the frames/ sills they still don't appear white which is a bit of a shame as I think it's more noticeable than the spotless windows.......is that quite common? The frames I've been cleaning have been upvc which start out showing brown water and then eventually I get it so the water running off them is clear and then I get started in the windows.

 

[Tuffers]

Hi all, I was making some more pure water today and before I put the hose into the water butt I got a tds meter reading of 14ppm which I was shocked at.
I took the di vessel out and got a reading of everything separately

Water from tap = 320ppm

Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

After including di with resin = 14ppm

My thinking was that the ro is working well so I gave the di with resin a shake and after I did that I got a reading of 6ppm

I then took that cartridge out and placed a new cartridge with resin in that vessel and I am once again getting 0ppm.

Question is, is that how quickly resin stops being efficient? I had produced maybe 1000litres of water before this point?

Seems like it stopped bringing the water down to 0ppm really quickly?!

The pictures below are of the di which only made the water 14ppm and 6ppm after a shake.....is it just a case of buying resin and then emptying out that old resin and refilling again?View attachment 14359 View attachment 14360

That to me looks like an RO housing and not a DI vessel.

 

[ace3]

It's from pure freedom Tuffers

That to me looks like an RO housing and not a DI vessel.

 

[Tuffers]

View attachment 14372
It's from pure freedom Tuffers

Never seen one of those before

 

[Iron Giant]

When I got my first ro from PF it had 2 pre-filters and a resin cartridge that's how they build theirs.

 

[Dennis Roberts]

Hi all,

I am new to window cleaning and WFP systems but have been lurking for the last month or so and have been able to acquire a wealth of knowledge using the search function etc so thank you very much to all who post on here!

I am a wholetime fire fighter who is looking to venture into WFP window cleaning and create a round based on my time away from my main employment. I have been canvassing for the last week or so and have managed to secure enough business to justify spending a lot of money on all of the necessary equipment.

I intend on using this thread to detail my progress as i go along and also to ask you all questions whenever i am unsure of the best way forward.

My first question is based on water purification. I have tested my water using a TDS meter and the reading was 250ppm which if I’m understanding things correctly, means that i will need to invest in a RO system to bring that number down and then use DI resin in order to bring that number down even further to 000ppm.

I am looking to buy this purification system from pure freedom but am not quite sure if contains everything that I will need.

View attachment 14160

I can see that it has the ro system but what about the di needed to get the water down to 000ppm? Underneath where it says “add on options” it says “10" DI Housing c/w Resin and Bracket +£27.35” is this what I need to tick? Or is di and resin completely different?

Thank you for your help

ace3

All you need is a tank apump a battery a switch a bag of resin and di vessel to put resin in then you will get a 000 reading

 

[spruce]

Hi all, I was making some more pure water today and before I put the hose into the water butt I got a tds meter reading of 14ppm which I was shocked at.
I took the di vessel out and got a reading of everything separately

Water from tap = 320ppm

Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

After including di with resin = 14ppm

My thinking was that the ro is working well so I gave the di with resin a shake and after I did that I got a reading of 6ppm

I then took that cartridge out and placed a new cartridge with resin in that vessel and I am once again getting 0ppm.

Question is, is that how quickly resin stops being efficient? I had produced maybe 1000litres of water before this point?

Seems like it stopped bringing the water down to 0ppm really quickly?!

The pictures below are of the di which only made the water 14ppm and 6ppm after a shake.....is it just a case of buying resin and then emptying out that old resin and refilling again?View attachment 14359 View attachment 14360

Water from tap = 320ppm

Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

There is something wrong with your r/o. Your membranes should be removing between 97 and 99% of those total dissolved solids. Expressed another way, the tds if the pure leaving the r/o should be around 9 or 10. At 45ppm your are going to be using much more resin removing the 35ppm your membranes should be removing.

Even if you were using a larger di vessel, you will still be wasting money on resin.

What r/o have you got?

.

 

[spruce]

Water from tap = 320ppm
Water after going through RO UNIT =45ppm

There is something wrong with your r/o. Your membranes should be removing between 97 and 99% of those total dissolved solids. Expressed another way, the tds of the pure leaving the r/o should be around 9 or 10. At 45ppm your are going to be using much more resin removing the 35ppm your membranes should be removing.

Even if you were using a larger di vessel, you will still be wasting money on resin.

What r/o have you got?

.

OK. Judging by the di cartridge you have one of those RoMan type r/os. Your membranes should be removing between 97 and 99% of the dissolved solids in your water.

 

[ace3]

OK. Judging by the di cartridge you have one of those RoMan type r/os. Your membranes should be removing between 97 and 99% of the dissolved solids in your water.

Hi spruce, user error, it should read 320 in 25 out but yes as you've said it's still not an acceptable rejection rate.

I've tried flushing for an hour and it's made no difference, perhaps I need to keep adjusting the flow gauge and see if that improves the numbers?

I'm also not convinced that I'm getting a great pressure from the tap either

Thanks for any help

 

[ace3]

Hi all,

I was completing all of the houses I had canvassed and very last job a guy came out and asked if I could do his windows also....I told him the price was £30 and he was happy but then asked if I could do all of the soffits and fascias.....I said yeah and that I would txt him a price for the whole job.

I've never attempted soffits and fascia cleaning, bearing in mind I don't use ladders, can I still do it from the ground with wfp?

I've taken a google maps picture of the house, if it's doable would you guys mind helping me price it up please?

Thanks for any help

 

[spruce]

View attachment 14566 Hi all,

I was completing all of the houses I had canvassed and very last job a guy came out and asked if I could do his windows also....I told him the price was £30 and he was happy but then asked if I could do all of the soffits and fascias.....I said yeah and that I would txt him a price for the whole job.

I've never attempted soffits and fascia cleaning, bearing in mind I don't use ladders, can I still do it from the ground with wfp?

I've taken a google maps picture of the house, if it's doable would you guys mind helping me price it up please?

Thanks for any help

I think you will find cleaning the apex soffitts over the garage a challenge thb. I would have to look at working from an A frame step ladder.

If you get the £30.00 for window cleaning (wow if we could only get those prices in the north east) then you would probably try for £60.00 for gutter and soffitt cleaning, so £90 all in. Watch out as he may think that clearing the gutters is included so you need to be very specific about what you will and won't do.

 

[ace3]

I think you will find cleaning the apex soffitts over the garage a challenge thb. I would have to look at working from an A frame step ladder.If you get the £30.00 for window cleaning (wow if we could only get those prices in the north east) then you would probably try for £60.00 for gutter and soffitt cleaning, so £90 all in. Watch out as he may think that clearing the gutters is included so you need to be very specific about what you will and won't do.

Thanks spruce, don't suppose you'd know much about using degreaser at all? I've used it on upvc and it works great but a few houses I do have white painted wooden frames and I'm wondering if I'd be able to do the same with the degreaser as I do on upvc?

 

[spruce]

We have UBIK on the van but haven't used it for ages.

If the soffitts are black usually a squirt of CIF cream cleaner on the brush is all that is needed.

I once used TFR and that dried on the conservatory leaving stains which took hours to remove. I tend to be cautious these days.

Even black algae under the gutters comes off pretty easily when you prespray it with pure water and leave it to soak for a few minutes.

Those plastic blocks above the windows will take a bit longer to do as they do make nice spider residences.

 

[ace3]

Hi all,

things have been going really well. I am about to start my 2nd cycle of cleans which I'm looking forward to as they are all maintenance cleans which I'm hoping will be much quicker.

I haven't managed to canvass the bigger houses yet and that's mainly down to the fact that I feel a little bit embarrassed of my set up.

I still haven't sorted out my boot and my workaround is using a long piece of wood to keep the boot up whilst I get my trolley out....it works, but to others must make me look like a total cowboy!

i am currently looking at vans and my plan  is to sell my car and just have a van.

does anyone have any recommendations about vans? 

I needed a new car anyway so I was thInking of spending about £8k and getting a nice low mileage van which has air con Bluetooth etc as I will need it for window cleaning and my main employment which includes motorway driving.

i have been looking at berlingos/partners and am not sure about whether to focus on a 625kg or a 850kg payload.

i am also looking at x line systems and am confused as to whether or not I should get a 350litre system or 500litre system.

if I went for a 625kg berlingo for example I would be able to get a lower mileage vehicle for my £8k budget and it would probably be a higher spec than a 850model but then I don't know if it would be possible to have a 500litre x line system installed as payload wise it would be very tight.