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Glass roofs never again

Doddy111

Active member
Messages
311
Location
Manchester
Having never done a glass conny roof I thought it’d be good to practice on my accountants (wasn’t a good idea)

It took me hours and im still not happy with the end result. Condensation, water getting between the panes and bee/fly **** not coming off were some of the problems. I imagine this is where a hot water system really comes into its own.

i didn’t know what kind of glass it was so just used pure. Is it better to clean the sides, gutters and the white end strips at the bottom of the glass before touching the roof? I haven’t figured out a method to do glass conny roofs 

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If a regular customer asks me to quote on a glass conny roof I just put in a daft price and explain that if someone comes in cheaper let them do it, and explain how hard they are to do properly. If a non customer asks me, then unless I'm in a quite spell, I put in a price I know I'll not get it at. The bits that just appear from nowhere after rinsing are a nightmare, it's almost like the joke with the shampoo and the bloke in the shower who can never seem to rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

 
I agree whole heartedly with Part Timer. Dont pay too much attention to the seals if you can help it. If there is moss in the seals then the seal has been compromised and often its the moss that is now acting as a seal, so if you remove it.... 

dont kick yourself over it there’s been many a similar discussion about conny roofs. If you’ve done everything you can in your power then the times gotta come where you stop killing yourself.

as has been mentioned in other topics, just put “wash” conservatory roof on the quote form. Then if they have a hoo ha say well you signed it.

i’ll give you a similar example. I quoted a 3 bed semi the other day. All windows needed tiny paint specs removing, slight frame restoration as well. I provided a written quite of £95

she text me back saying hiya thanks for your quote but we rent the property, we’re not bothered about having paint specs removed or frames restored that’s the landlords responsibility, we just want them cleaned.

i said yeah 

“no worries i understand where you’re coming, people have such high expectations these days it’s almost like people will find any excuse to make a complaint, the fact is i now price all jobs based on me doing everything i can to the best of my ability, i can do you a basic WFP clean for £25 if you like.

she said brill happy days.

Same with a patio & driveway wash i just quoted, elderly lady, 2 lovely dogs who are her world, patio runs straight on to her lush green grass. Drainage otherwise non existent. I honestly didnt want to be using hypo. It needs it but....

i just put down basic pressure wash, results wont be 100%, explained the reasons why i wasnt going to be using chems, got her to sign it, happy days. 

Tailoring to your market sometimes and just being realistic without giving yourself a headache is the key. As long as you explain it on the quote form and they sign it....that’s enough cover for me if anyone wants to create a stink about something not being clean enough. 

 
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Luckily they’re good family friends so they told me how pleased they were with it but I wasn’t happy with it at all especially as they’ll now probably have to replace the panes that have blown. 

I completely underestimated just how difficult those glass roofs can be bits were just appearing out of nowhere. 

As @CHWS mentioned by hand is certainly the way to go, so I’ll have to invest in some conny ladders. 

I left feeling pretty cr@ppy about the standard of work so it’s good to know even the more experienced lads struggle with these jobs

 
I have one customer who has a glass conny roof, £90 to clean it the first time. Took a couple of hours and did my head in. On the next job she had bird poo on the roof and a bit of moss. I gave it a quick blast with the brush and knocked the moss down. I showed the customer and said thats a freebie but if you want it done each month it'll be an extra £5, she went for that and it literally takes me less than 5 minutes to clean it. Saves me the hassle of the full clean and keeps her happy. I wouldn't normally do it for free of course I was just toying with the idea.

 
Yeh I don’t know anyone who actually ‘enjoys them’ I always leave glass till last, so all plastic everywhere first, then do all the glass, rinse rinse rinse! Then If bits appear later, re rinse again ok a lower pressure, and start from about 6 inches down from the top.

i don’t mean to sound cowboy, but if the insides are dirty, you can get away with a few specs etc left on the outside.

 
I have one customer who has a glass conny roof, £90 to clean it the first time. Took a couple of hours and did my head in. On the next job she had bird poo on the roof and a bit of moss. I gave it a quick blast with the brush and knocked the moss down. I showed the customer and said thats a freebie but if you want it done each month it'll be an extra £5, she went for that and it literally takes me less than 5 minutes to clean it. Saves me the hassle of the full clean and keeps her happy. I wouldn't normally do it for free of course I was just toying with the idea.
Yes they are easier to clean if they are regularly maintained, however you really have to keep track of water usage. It's also a safer bet to quote the roof in a worst case scenario situation as they will generally say “ill only have that done once in a blue moon”

i priced a job the other day on a 5 bed detached house, there is glass everywhere. Balcony with large glass panels, juliette doors, that need to be done from the balcony, 13 panel glass roof conny, the garage porch alley area has 5 flat sky panels covered in moss and theyre hard to access. Sash bars on most windows, roof veluxes that require a 35 ft pole, around 50-60 windows inc conny ones.

two people could easily spend 1/2 day or more cleaning it before you know where the times gone and the water usage i dread to think. Customer has no chance of doing it all themself in less than a day and a half and besides they dont have the equipment. 

Priced it up as £250 whether regular or not ?... the most extreme price i have ever quoted for window cleaning alone residentially. Its a shame because they were a lovely couple and i doubt i’ll get the work at that price but i cant realistically be doing it for less ?‍♂️

 
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Yes they are easier to clean if they are regularly maintained, however you really have to keep track of water usage. It's also a safer bet to quote the roof in a worst case scenario situation as they will generally say “ill only have that done once in a blue moon”

i priced a job the other day on a 5 bed detached house, there is glass everywhere. Balcony with large glass panels, juliette doors, that need to be done from the balcony, 13 panel glass roof conny, the garage porch alley area has 5 flat sky panels covered in moss and theyre hard to access. Sash bars on most windows, roof veluxes that require a 35 ft pole, around 50-60 windows inc conny ones.

two people could easily spend 1/2 day or more cleaning it before you know where the times gone and the water usage i dread to think. Customer has no chance of doing it all themself in less than a day and a half and besides they dont have the equipment. 

 Priced it up as £250 whether regular or not ?... the most extreme price i have ever quoted for window cleaning alone residentially. Its a shame because they were a lovely couple and i doubt i’ll get the work at that price but i cant realistically be doing it for less ?‍♂️
I went to this guy who had a converted church once, he tried to get me to quote from this video;

https://youtu.be/N1WbyLq1-RM

What he forgot to mention was the terraced houses to the left and right of the property which meant the Velux are inaccessible unless you tuck a ladder down the side at a very steep angle... I mean forgot to mention in a genuine way, he was a really nice chap and just assumed we would clean the way the last guy did up a ladder with WFP. I walked from it, far too much that job. I think water use would have been the least of my worries with that place.

The conny roof i'm on about it a rectangular one just like a lean to. I've got a couple of these on the round and both have bedroom windows above them so if you don't clean them they get splashed on and look awful. Had a customer who moved out that had one too, always found myself giving the panes below the window a quick rinse.

 
We do a lot , I have found the easiest and fastest way to do them is as followes

spray with virosol mix 10-1 , 

give it a good scrub with wfp 

rinse with copious amounts of water using garden hose 

then rinse with pure job done 

some roofs are worse than others shallow pitch is a pain , some roofs just seam to produce dirt from no ware you think it’s rinsed ok and then it’s civerd with small black bits , we always give the roof rails a good scrubb where they meet the glass as this seams to be a problem area .

the key to jobs like this is Price we have a minimum price of £60 for a small glass roof going up to several hundred for very large ones . Polycarbonate roofs are very easy and quick we will do them for a lot less money however it’s important tk cheak them thoroughly when quoting as I have found several that have holes in the top layer of the plastic and then licken , algy and moss will grow between the two layers of plastic , there is nothing that can be done to clean this it needs replacing , I got court out like this a couple of times in the early days so always have a good look now , it’s suprising how many are actually like this 

 
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