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Newbie advice please

StevieWindows

New member
Messages
11
Location
West Sussex
Good afternoon!

I've been scratching my head for a while now, sorting out a rather large quote for a school/ collage/ residential blocks all on one site. 

This is my first quote of this size. It took just over an hour to walk around and 190 photos of everything. 

It's about 4000 windows, give or take, and would be done twice a year in the school holidays. 

Now, I know schools don't like to spend too much, but this is a private school, and we have done smaller jobs/ builders cleans on a new building on site for a decent price. So they have an idea of our pricing. 

But I keep going back and forth between pricing per window and trying to figure out how long it would take/ how much £££ per day etc. 

Price per window in the region of £4000, but as its done twice yearly, then it should be more, no?

That just seems right and bonkers at the same time. 

What do think? 

The current windies take about a week for a few of them I think. There's 2 of us, but could rope in other help. 

I know pricing is a very personal thing, but any guidance would be much appreciated!! 

Thanks

 
I probably wouldn't touch it myself. Purely on the bases it doesnt suit the size of my business. If you loss the client. Its going to hurt. What percent of your business for the year would it be, at 2 cleans of 4000 windows. 10%?

Personally 4000 windows, I would be thinking a minimum £6000 per clean, ideally 7-8k, absolutely not 4k. Bearing in mind thats just based on the no of windows, assuming average type size. If they are caked, victorian sash windows no chance.

 
I probably wouldn't touch it myself. Purely on the bases it doesnt suit the size of my business. If you loss the client. Its going to hurt. What percent of your business for the year would it be, at 2 cleans of 4000 windows. 10%?

Personally 4000 windows, I would be thinking a minimum £6000 per clean, ideally 7-8k, absolutely not 4k. Bearing in mind thats just based on the no of windows, assuming average type size. If they are caked, victorian sash windows no chance.


Thank you for your reply.

I was thinking more 6k+ as well, as a 4k price would be for a more frequent clean

To be honest, we're not dependant on having it, we won't loose anything if they don't accept, so can go for a punt. 

I'll attach a few samples. The windows vary on the different buildings, but gives you a general idea. 

20191208_172226.jpg20191208_172520.jpg20191208_172546.jpg20191208_172417.jpg

 
Very much doubt you'll get a £1 a window, unless you're in a very affluent area or their preference is local company. Big jobs like these don't take anywhere near as long as people think.

Can't see everything but if that's  a weeks work for 2 people and you can get £6k good luck to you. 4000 windows is 400 windows a day per man. That's 50 an hour and they're probably 2 a minute

 
Very much doubt you'll get a £1 a window, unless you're in a very affluent area or their preference is local company. Big jobs like these don't take anywhere near as long as people think.

Can't see everything but if that's  a weeks work for 2 people and you can get £6k good luck to you. 4000 windows is 400 windows a day per man. That's 50 an hour and they're probably 2 a minute


Thanks for you reply. 

It is quite a wealthy area. 

The house keeper reckons it takes 3 guys a week to do. Everyone is different though, so appreciate speeds can vary. 

The layout of the many buildings will slow us down, very fiddly, and they will only be cleaned twice a year. 

A company usually charges £600 a day for a tradeperson. If its 10 days then 6 grand should be the top price, 5 grand mid price and 4 grand bottom price. fwiw
Thanks ?

 
A company usually charges £600 a day for a tradeperson. If its 10 days then 6 grand should be the top price, 5 grand mid price and 4 grand bottom price. fwiw
Where do you get this from, there's  company's round me that charge £30 an hour for time served electricians. You're  talking about £75 an hour for semi skilled labourers.

 
is quite a wealthy area. 

The house keeper reckons it takes 3 guys a week to do. Everyone is different though, so appreciate speeds can vary. 

The layout of the many buildings will slow us down, very fiddly, and they will only be cleaned twice a year. 
That's  £2k a week per man, that's very big money. The fact that it's only twice a year is already factored in. If you get it for £6k I'll do it and give you a £2k profit and you don't have any risk.

Fairly sure my son and I will easily knock that out in less than a week.

 
Without being rude I agree with @Part Timer I don’t think that will take that long highest bit three  floors ??? We do bigger blocks of retirement flats 4-5 floors 50 odd flats per block and that takes 2:5 hours including all internal communal windows , you won’t get away with charging £1 per window on that type of job ,when you are cleaning window after window it’s very quick I timed one of our biggest job and it took between 20-30 seconds per window , some of yours are much bigger windows I accept but you will knock out a lot in 8 hours a day if it took three of you a week to do at £6000 that’s £288,000 per year on a 48 week year , not many will earn that with three guys . If you don’t really want the job then it’s worth a punt , if you want it I guess 4K tops might get it , on commercial work like this I know a few that get 1k per day for two guys , I think that’s quite good money fir low lever work , good luck with it , keep us informed how it goes .

 
Where do you get this from, there's  company's round me that charge £30 an hour for time served electricians. You're  talking about £75 an hour for semi skilled labourers.


If you charge £30 an hour then the company will quickly become bankrupt. The bank charges the NHS £1700 a day for a nurse, the nurse will get about £200. My wee brother is an electrician and gets nearly £20 an hour so a company needs to charge 3 times that just to stay afloat. To remove squirrels from a loft my customer got a quote of £300 minimum for one cage and then £100 per extra cage. I thought everyone who was running a vat or limited company would charge nothing less than £600 a day, obviously a sole trader will be looking for £300 a day.

 
Without being rude I agree with @Part Timer I don’t think that will take that long highest bit three  floors ??? We do bigger blocks of retirement flats 4-5 floors 50 odd flats per block and that takes 2:5 hours including all internal communal windows , you won’t get away with charging £1 per window on that type of job ,when you are cleaning window after window it’s very quick I timed one of our biggest job and it took between 20-30 seconds per window , some of yours are much bigger windows I accept but you will knock out a lot in 8 hours a day if it took three of you a week to do at £6000 that’s £288,000 per year on a 48 week year , not many will earn that with three guys . If you don’t really want the job then it’s worth a punt , if you want it I guess 4K tops might get it , on commercial work like this I know a few that get 1k per day for two guys , I think that’s quite good money fir low lever work , good luck with it , keep us informed how it goes .
No rudeness at all, this is why I made the post, to find out what more experienced window cleaners thought! 

There are some higher windows or course, but 3 floors is by far the majority. Fare bit of ladder access needed, but nothing too taxing. I can't post all 190 photos of every window ? 

Really appreciate all your advice though. Thank you

 
That's  £2k a week per man, that's very big money. The fact that it's only twice a year is already factored in. If you get it for £6k I'll do it and give you a £2k profit and you don't have any risk.

Fairly sure my son and I will easily knock that out in less than a week.


You'd have to come a long way PT, so you probably could get away with charging £6k!

 
I cant offer any input apart from as long as ibe been on the forum @Part Timer and @Pjj have been spot on with every bit of advice theyve ever given me.

If i needed advice on a job like this id 100% be heading straight to them.

Actually i do have a bit of advice.

If you go in at £4000 and get the job theres 2 of you on your firm from what i gather, if it was me id be subbing in another 2man team for Mon/Tue give them £300 a day each (1200 for 2 days), 4 of you probably get most of it done in 2 10hr days, then you n your worker do 3rd day finishing up still 2800 for 3 days work.

 
I cant offer any input apart from as long as ibe been on the forum @Part Timer and @Pjj have been spot on with every bit of advice theyve ever given me.

If i needed advice on a job like this id 100% be heading straight to them.

Actually i do have a bit of advice.

If you go in at £4000 and get the job theres 2 of you on your firm from what i gather, if it was me id be subbing in another 2man team for Mon/Tue give them £300 a day each (1200 for 2 days), 4 of you probably get most of it done in 2 10hr days, then you n your worker do 3rd day finishing up still 2800 for 3 days work.


Thanks for that advice, sounds good. 

Assuming the current 3 man team are on £300 a day each, that's £4500 for the week... ?

I'm in Cambridgeshire 4 days next week, leave home 5 am tomorrow, only grossing circa £3k. You're only another hour or so further down so another £250 a day would more than cover it. Actually do a gutter job in Gosport


Wow you do travel! 

 
Thanks for that advice, sounds good. 

Assuming the current 3 man team are on £300 a day each, that's £4500 for the week... ?




It would depend who is doing the work if they are employees they won’t be on £300 per day , as a buisness owner I wouldn’t get out of bed for that I would expect to earn that before lunch , but we are all different and have different levels of expenses, in my humble opinion two guys in a van have to bring in £450 minimum per day on domestic preferably a lot more , on commercial you should be able to do 1k per day provided it’s decent work that worked out to £62:50 per hour per man over the day 2x8 =16 hours total work , most sole traders will earn £40-50 per hour on domestic so commercial needs to pay more as bigger more expensive poles are being used a 3 k pole takes a lot of paying for 

 
My second job tomorrow is a site that the previous cleaners took 2 men 2 days to do. I can do it myself in a day, admittedly a very hard day, but it pays £560. So the fact the Caretaker says it takes 3 men 5 days to do wouldn't faze me at all


Yeah it's not fazing me, just trying to use it as a basis as this is the largest job I've done thus far!

 
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