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!

How many houses

brendan82

New member
Messages
21
Hi all. I've recently got my trolley built and I'm up and running. Being practising a lot on friends and neighbours and getting pretty good results and feedback. Just wondering how many houses a day on average is achievable starting out. Most house are 3 bed semi ds and are in close proximity to eachother. What is a good target starting out. Luckily I'm having no trouble getting customers tru my Facebook page but not sure what's realistic as it's part time for the moment. 2 days one week and 3 the following week due to shift work. Thanks guys

 
That's a bit difficult to answer as houses are all different. I've got some 2 bed places that have more work on them than some 4 bed places. However, what you will notice is that your first cleans will likely be a lot slower due to initial scrubbing and rinsing to get rid of old accumulated dirt etc. Your second a third cleans will be noticeably quicker and use a lot less water

 
Thanks mark. I'm using 10 25 litre drums and I'm assuming that should do me for the day. Do you know how long the water stays pure in the drums out of interest

 
Thanks mark. I'm using 10 25 litre drums and I'm assuming that should do me for the day. Do you know how long the water stays pure in the drums out of interest
I used to use 12 a day till I figured out I had my flow control set too low. It caused me too spend much longer rinsing than needed to get a good finish. Ironically, by turning the flow up to 80% from 40/50% I get a much better result much quicker. Sounds back to front I know but I actually use a lot less water like this especially when you factor in the amount of water that goes to waste in production. I now only use 8-10 barrels a day. Yesterday I covered 32 homes only one of which was a 2 bed flat with 10 barrels. When I get some time I'll see if I can post some pics of the kind of houses I do.

 
32 in one day sounds like a lot for me. I'm hoping maybe 12-15 starting out. Some customers want me to trad the bottoms so I'll save on pure doing this. I'm doing double DI at moment but will probably get a RO after Xmas. So far so good tho. Great help and advice here

 
32 in one day sounds like a lot for me. I'm hoping maybe 12-15 starting out. Some customers want me to trad the bottoms so I'll save on pure doing this. I'm doing double DI at moment but will probably get a RO after Xmas. So far so good tho. Great help and advice here

You do what you can a day. You can only start thinking about speed once you have got the first cleans over and done with. Speed will come, but you need the confidence of using the system first and that takes time.

My advice is also not to let customers dictate how you will clean lower windows. Trading downstairs windows is an option for you to save water at the moment. But into the future you may find it quicker to wfp all windows. If you commit yourself now it could be more difficult to change them over.

.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
When I first started 8 barrels was good for the day with blading the odd bottom, today though I've got through 250 ltrs and finished at 2 with 34 3 story Georgian new builds done

 
32 in one day sounds like a lot for me. I'm hoping maybe 12-15 starting out. Some customers want me to trad the bottoms so I'll save on pure doing this. I'm doing double DI at moment but will probably get a RO after Xmas. So far so good tho. Great help and advice here
It doesn't matter what the customer wants you to do on bottoms

You work how you want to work ..a long as their windows are clean it is irrelevant

I can do 2 average 3 bed houses easily with 25l in about 15 minutes if they were next door to each other

So that would make 20 from your 10 drums

Although when you are new to it and first cleans you will probably use a drum per house at first

 
32 in one day sounds like a lot for me. I'm hoping maybe 12-15 starting out. Some customers want me to trad the bottoms so I'll save on pure doing this. I'm doing double DI at moment but will probably get a RO after Xmas. So far so good tho. Great help and advice here
Sorry Brendan, I didn't intend for you to see 32 houses as a target. I only mentioned the amount of work I did yesterday to give an idea of what can be done with 200-250ltrs of water on regular cleans. This will vary depending on the size of the windows in the properties you clean as well. I'd imagine you'd use a lot more on commercial work as well. Just go out and enjoy yourself.

 
For first cleans if possible use customers water tap. To clean. All dirt off. Then. Go over it with pure at end and u won't waste ur pure as ur linted with a trolley

 
Depends on how compact they are, how busy you are and how confident you are.

For example, i work in a way that i could do about a 12-15 working 9-3

Usually spread out to some degree, i like to do a thorough job, probably too thorough but i dont want any complaints or to risk losing any.

if i had work coming out of my ears i bet i could go a lot quicker and still not get complaints, its a confidence thing.

I once read a post that said, practice going quicker and quicker until you start to get complaints then back it off a bit, your looking for that sweetspot where youre as fast and efficent as possible but still doing a good job youll only find that by experimenting.

I can clean my 3 bed semi to what i consider an acceptable standard in about 6 minutes ive timed it. drys fine.

But on a customers it would be 15 mins or so simply because i havent got the confidence levels up yet but that will come with more work when the fear of doing a bad job eases up. Your brain may not work like mine though lol, i have a lot of anxiety.

 
80% of 3 beds round here have bay windows at the front and 2 or 3 small windows at the sides, only the smaller newer builds and council houses tend to be flat windows

 
Personally 15 a day to start with seems a decent target, I'm trad but first cleans take time and you'll get faster regardless. 15 a day was what I started aiming for in the spring and as you get more comfy fire it up to 18 then 20 etc

Time yourself,it helps keep the momentum I reckon.

 
15 minutes a house and that is doing a thorough job, I was on them yesterday all day in the rain, 30 houses done and that includes 2 small stops and talking with the customers which they appreciate

 
Back
Top