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Help pricing this gutter clean - complicated access..

Kips

Active member
Messages
566
Hi guys, I've been asked to quote for cleaning out the gutters on this place - problem is, the pavements are extremely narrow, it's on a non residential street and there's a lot of car traffic on the roads through the day. So basically access is a PITA, and we'd need to contact the council to be allowed to put cones out in the road and close off bits of the pavement while we were cleaning out the gutters as obviously we can't have pedestrians walking underneth - have attached some photos as basically I have no idea how to price this one - your thoughts guys?

Truth be told, i'm terrible at pricing gutter cleans. With windows, i'm fine, I have a system and I can answer questions if the custie asks - but gutters.. I just guess a figure pretty much!

So, I would really appreciate any input from you lot - primarily in terms of what you would charge, but also in terms of what the process is likely to be like asking the council to close the road etc.

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Oh and before anyone says don't bother asking the council, just do it early.. that building across the road middle left in picture 1 is the borough council offices.. so health and safety has to be tip top on this one /emoticons/wacko.png

 
@Smurf - you're a bit of a gutter cleaning guru round these parts if I remember correctly, any input/advice? /emoticons/smile.png
 
How bad are the gutters/downspouts and what has the customer told you the problems are if any they are having?

Also have you done a gutter cam survey yet to see for yourself what needs doing?

 
How bad are the gutters/downspouts and what has the customer told you the problems are if any they are having?
Also have you done a gutter cam survey yet to see for yourself what needs doing?
The property is quite near where I live and I know it well - the gutters are pretty full, in places plants can be seen growing up and out of them. I also know they havent been cleared out 'in years' as the owner told me so, and there are a lot of tall trees that shed a lot of leaves all around the property so i'm expecting the gutters to be fairly chocka.

 
Sounds like you need to contact your local council/highways agency then for advice and cost of traffic calming for the works to be completed safely.

Good luck & let us know how you get on:thumbsup:

 
I just found out looking on the net that my local council charge £1100 for a

APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY TRAFFIC RESTRICTION :eek:

 
Wonder if having a colleague standing by to alert passers by would suffice. Could do it early when less people are about and cease work when they come by, or do it in phases perhaps. Going armed with the cost of council permits when you do the quote should drive up the quote a lot though.

I imagine a chat with the relevant council departments is needed at any rate

 
£1100! robbing gits, if it was me i would park the van half on and off the path as a sort of shield and wait for the lighter mornings and hit it while the council h+s bods are still snoring away.

 
How does their window cleaner manage to get to the windows I wonder? That is if they have one? WFP and you'd have a hose over a narrow path, possibly a van on double yellows and the cleaner standing in the road or trad and he has his ladder right across the path. Ask them @Kips.

 
@Tuffers Funny you should ask, I was their window cleaner, when I worked with my mate before we had a falling out and I went out by myself (long story, zzz zzz) - anyway they just had it done as an 'as and when they rang us' and it was indeed sketchy, one of us standing in the road to redirect traffic and the other hoping the former didn't **** things up!

I had a long chat with someone at the council and they said that basically as long as I took a 'common sense' approach to health and safety, they would have no issue with that. We went on to chat about what that meant exactly, and the guy was actually really helpful, and the long and the short of it is that if I do it early sunday morning, use cones to cone off the pavement and use my vehicle as a 'shield' then they would have no issue with work being done in that way.

Based on that i've spoken to the client and got it booked in for the sunday 25th @ 8am for £175. Hurrah!

 
Nice one. My guess quote was £200. Maybe the council could be sued for restricting essential maintenance to a private property of something, so they help rather than hinder. Councils have been bankrupted over some cases of individual rights being impinged

 
@Tuffers Funny you should ask, I was their window cleaner, when I worked with my mate before we had a falling out and I went out by myself (long story, zzz zzz) - anyway they just had it done as an 'as and when they rang us' and it was indeed sketchy, one of us standing in the road to redirect traffic and the other hoping the former didn't **** things up!
I had a long chat with someone at the council and they said that basically as long as I took a 'common sense' approach to health and safety, they would have no issue with that. We went on to chat about what that meant exactly, and the guy was actually really helpful, and the long and the short of it is that if I do it early sunday morning, use cones to cone off the pavement and use my vehicle as a 'shield' then they would have no issue with work being done in that way.

Based on that i've spoken to the client and got it booked in for the sunday 25th @ 8am for £175. Hurrah!
Do not tell smurf...he would charge 320...

 
I don't do early like first light so would be alot more than that for sure /emoticons/biggrin.png

Anyway you should still have at least one spotter on the ground so you would need to pay them too.:whistle:

Do not tell smurf...he would charge 320...
 
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