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Tap water then filtered water

Becky D

New member
Messages
21
Location
London
Evening all. I am starting out window cleaning. I understand a little bit of what equipment i need to start up with. I might go for reach and wash pole. To save initial start up costs and to be as competitive as possible with my pricing, could i use ordinary tap water to clean the windows with my brush then use my filtered water to rinse the glass, will this leave any marks still. Will this be any good? Does tap water affect the rubber seals around the glass? my area gives out 40 - 50 pp according to a local window cleaner  Cheers x

 
Evening all. I am starting out window cleaning. I understand a little bit of what equipment i need to start up with. I might go for reach and wash pole. To save initial start up costs and to be as competitive as possible with my pricing, could i use ordinary tap water to clean the windows with my brush then use my filtered water to rinse the glass, will this leave any marks still. Will this be any good? Does tap water affect the rubber seals around the glass? my area gives out 40 - 50 pp according to a local window cleaner  Cheers x
Spend the extra and save the effort of doing the job twice ?

 
It is a good idea but it would take to long to swap over all the time and pure water is as cheap as chips if your tap is 050 tds. As they say go through all the old posts and also watch utube to get some ideas.

 
Evening all. I am starting out window cleaning. I understand a little bit of what equipment i need to start up with. I might go for reach and wash pole. To save initial start up costs and to be as competitive as possible with my pricing, could i use ordinary tap water to clean the windows with my brush then use my filtered water to rinse the glass, will this leave any marks still. Will this be any good? Does tap water affect the rubber seals around the glass? my area gives out 40 - 50 pp according to a local window cleaner  Cheers x
As far as I am aware no where in the London area has soft water with a tap tds of 40-50ppm 

 
Buy yourself a TDS meter, they aren't expensive. I bought mine for around £10. Then you'll know what type of water you're dealing with. 

John

Gleam Clean

Tamar Valley Cornwall

 
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It is a good idea but it would take to long to swap over all the time and pure water is as cheap as chips if your tap is 050 tds. As they say go through all the old posts and also watch utube to get some ideas.
Carrying around two water sources will be an interesting way of doing things.

@Becky D. Do it right to begin with. I noted your expression; To save initial start up costs and to be as competitive as possible with my pricing .......

Obviously we don't want to waste money on initial start up costs, but times have changed. At one time starting a window cleaning round was to buy a good light ladder, applicator, squeegee, scrims and a bucket of soapy water. A roofrack on the family car got you going. Nowadays H&S regulation has made wfp an expensive investment. Because people see this as an easy job now more and more are attempting to become window cleaners. Its hard graft and takes many years to develop a good solid round.

To be as competitive as possible isn't exactly what you are aiming for either. In the long term you need a well priced round so you can earn a decent living from. Being competitive usually means at the cheapest end of pricing. The people get customers who are themselves looking for the best price but swap when someone cheaper comes along. You are looking for a customer base that values your service and it happy to pay for it.

These are the types of rounds where a cleaner works his backside off every day for a pittance and eventually just calls it a day. This is the type of job where you can't rely on having a compact round where you can do get through 20 or 25 houses a day at cheap prices and still walk away with a good wage. Those days are long since gone.

With regard to pricing; if you get every job you quote your are too cheap. If you don't get any jobs you quote your are too expensive. If you get around 60% of the jobs you quote you are on the right tract to begin with. If you get 40% of the jobs you quote you will be making money in the long term.

Now the test is to let those potential jobs go who believe you are too expensive when you need every job you can get to begin with. But if you negotiate every job then you will eventually have a poor paying round. As they saying goes; you don't want to be a busy fool.

 
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Buy yourself a TDS meter, they aren't expensive. I bought mine for around £10. Then you'll know what type of water you're dealing with. 

John

Glen Clean

Tamar Valley Cornwall
Best starter tool to give you a sense of direction. However I would buy from a recognised wfp supplier. There were too many cheap fakes on ebay at one time.

 
Carrying around two water sources will be an interesting way of doing things.

@Becky D. Do it right to begin with. I noted your expression; To save initial start up costs and to be as competitive as possible with my pricing .......

Obviously we don't want to waste money on initial start up costs, but times have changed. At one time starting a window cleaning round was a good light ladder, applicator, squeegee, scrims and a bucket of soapy water. A roofrack on the family car got you going. Nowadays H&S regulation has made wfp an expensive investment. Because people see this as an easy job now more and more are attempting to become window cleaners. Its hard graft and takes many years to develop a good solid round.

To be as competitive as possible isn't exactly what you are aiming for either. In the long term you need a well priced round so you can earn a decent living from. Being competitive usually means at the cheapest end of pricing. The people get customers who are themselves looking for the best price but swap when someone cheaper comes along. You are looking for a customer base that values your service and it happy to pay for it.

These are the types of rounds where a cleaner works his backside off every day for a pittance and eventually just calls it a day. This is the type of job where you can't rely on having a compact round where you can do get through 20 or 25 houses a day at cheap prices and still walk away with a good wage. Those days are long since gone.

With regard to pricing; if you get every job you quote your are too cheap. If you don't get any jobs you quote your are too expensive. If you get around 60% of the jobs you quote you are on the right tract to begin with. If you get 40% of the jobs you quote you will be making money in the long term.

Now the test is to let those potential jobs go who believe you are too expensive when you need every job you can get to begin with. But if you negotiate every job then you will eventually have a poor paying round. As they saying goes; you don't want to be a busy fool.
I don't even think about money now because I'm too busy with work. I generally make a grand a week at this time of year because everyone wants things done in Spring and Summer time and not enough trade people to do all the work so the prices are high. Best thing I did was invest all the profits back into new equipment and make my work as simple as possible. I watch a weekly program called Opal Hunters and I get a good insight into working with equipment. The hunters don't have much money so all their equipment is old and breaks down on a daily basis. They continually lose a few days work every week and slowly lose confidence because it just grinds one down each day. Their is a guy with a new excavator and every time you see him he is beaming with confidence because nothing breaks down but he doesn't need money. That's when I realised that money is our confidence because it gives us the ability to buy new equipment which saves time and makes the job easier and a lot safer. I now know I have all the best of gear so I can price on the high side, the customer has a choice to make and generally goes with me. Either way, I'm not bothered. One of my customer went with dodgy roofers because they were cheap and had a nightmare. Costing more now to fix it but its the grief she had because she went cheap and now paying more to fix their mistakes. Buy cheap pay twice as the saying goes. Oliver here now to service my system so I'm away to make them coffee. ?

 
Wise words Spruce, I bet VW wished you worked for them when they purchased the fake emission tester from Ebay. ? 
When you look back, the plan VW hatched and executed was very clever. although very deceitful. How they thought they would get away with it is beyond me. Its cost them a lot of money but they have still come out of it better off financially despite the continuing ripples elsewhere. Surely they would know that someday someone is going to find them out or even a disgruntled employee spills the beans.

It doesn't seem to have impacted on VW sales that much in the UK either. One of our friends had an effected Touran. Someone whispered that he would be better off not having the emissions upgrade so he didn't. Car ran fine.So for us ordinary Joe Soaps we would never have known the difference. Thankfully there are some clever people out there.

 
In the end if you bury something it eventually takes root and grows. I have realised by the 'law of reciprocation' that helping folk out will return later on. Last year I purchased a Grippatank hot water system and the electric reels weren't installed till December because the motors hadn't arrived. Many on here were giving Grippatank a hard time but I stuck by them as I knew they would come good in the end. Oliver today stuck in 2 new wireless motors into my reels and I can even make them go backwards, slow or fast by remote control. He even swapped my brass elbows for 2 new block swivel elbows worth £80 and a free £50 carbon/sediment filter. My system is running like a dream now and well worth the £600 annual service fee. Will be out all day tomorrow trying out my remote control reels and let you know how it goes. ? 

 
In the end if you bury something it eventually takes root and grows. I have realised by the 'law of reciprocation' that helping folk out will return later on. Last year I purchased a Grippatank hot water system and the electric reels weren't installed till December because the motors hadn't arrived. Many on here were giving Grippatank a hard time but I stuck by them as I knew they would come good in the end. Oliver today stuck in 2 new wireless motors into my reels and I can even make them go backwards, slow or fast by remote control. He even swapped my brass elbows for 2 new block swivel elbows worth £80 and a free £50 carbon/sediment filter. My system is running like a dream now and well worth the £600 annual service fee. Will be out all day tomorrow trying out my remote control reels and let you know how it goes. ? 
Can’t wait ?

 
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