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Paint spots and other difficult ‘Dirt’

LS Window’s

Member
Messages
35
Location
Hertfordshire
Did a New Build house yesterday, windows covered in white paint spots and other bits of building dirt and dust. Really difficult to budge, good scrub with water fed pole wasn’t enough. Anything you guys recommend for these types of jobs?

 
Did a New Build house yesterday, windows covered in white paint spots and other bits of building dirt and dust. Really difficult to budge, good scrub with water fed pole wasn’t enough. Anything you guys recommend for these types of jobs?
I'd recommend you give the windows a very thorough, normal wash. Make sure they have no valid reason to complain about your work.

Don't make an issue of it with the customer. If they say anything, be surprised that they could expect the window cleaner to scrape paint or builders morter off. You might do damage, and anyway, it's the job of whoever put it on to remove it.

 
I do so many of these bloody first cleans in the commercial and domestic world. Detergent, scraper, bronze wool, elbow grease . After all the cr*p is off the glass I will use wfp. This is exactly why trad will always be needed regardless of what anyone says. WFP imo is amazing for awkward glass and jobs with lots of framework as it gives a more thorough clean, it gets into all the nooks and crannies so to speak but builders cleans need a mix. I have done thousands of these types of cleans over the years and for builders cleans you'll almost always need a fresh clean blade to scrape the glass down & some bronze wool. Paint marks are easy to remove, as is plaster etc but silicone is the real pain in the backside.

 
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Did a New Build house yesterday, windows covered in white paint spots and other bits of building dirt and dust. Really difficult to budge, good scrub with water fed pole wasn’t enough. Anything you guys recommend for these types of jobs?
Sounds like a builders clean to me , scraper , and solvent cleaner would be my  tools to do that but we no longer do builders cleans 

 
Sounds like a builders clean to me , scraper , and solvent cleaner would be my  tools to do that but we no longer do builders cleans 
Aye 6" Unger scraper does the trick but as above, don't think they are worth the hassle. I am looking for £300 a day now when I do my add-ons and to my surprise I am getting it. Just told one customer yesterday that I don't work for £100 a day no more when I can make £300 and she still asked me to price the job for her.

 
Why do you feel the need to tell people what you earn. It's got absolutely nothing to do with them and if anything will cause resentment.
Not a tall, it educates people not to sell them self short. We are all in this game to make money and give us a better standard of life. We should all aim for £8 minimum price only then will customers respect our service. It costs us about £100 a week or more to run our business so we need to get a return for all our outgoings. fwiw

 
Not a tall, it educates people not to sell them self short. We are all in this game to make money and give us a better standard of life. We should all aim for £8 minimum price only then will customers respect our service. It costs us about £100 a week or more to run our business so we need to get a return for all our outgoings. fwiw
I'm talking about telling customers, or potential customers, what you earn. If someone walked up to me and told me they earn £300 a day I'd be non to impressed. Not for any jealousy reasons but it sounds so unprofessional I'd be worried what his work quality was like. You won't be making £300 a day charging £8 a job either

 
I'm talking about telling customers, or potential customers, what you earn. If someone walked up to me and told me they earn £300 a day I'd be non to impressed. Not for any jealousy reasons but it sounds so unprofessional I'd be worried what his work quality was like. You won't be making £300 a day charging £8 a job either
Quite agree , I have some customers that have well paying jobs but I know I earn far more per hour than they do ???? I just let them think I am a poor window cleaner who cannot do anything else , and they are king of the castle ????

 
I'm talking about telling customers, or potential customers, what you earn. If someone walked up to me and told me they earn £300 a day I'd be non to impressed. Not for any jealousy reasons but it sounds so unprofessional I'd be worried what his work quality was like. You won't be making £300 a day charging £8 a job either
I see. I used to charge a ton a day when I did homers but now everything goes through the books. All my old customers still want the £100 a day but I can't do it so I have a dilemma so I tell them straight that I can earn £300 a day now. Its hard letting them down but I'm losing money going back to my old ways and there is no incentive to do the job. I'm much more happier and encouraged to get the job done and move on to my next job. I don't usually price by the day because I quote a price for the full job. Twenty jobs at £8 a time is £160 a day means £800 a week. That would do me nicely but one would need 400 customers for that. I'm having a clearout today and getting rid of stuff that I've kept for years. 

 
Did a New Build house yesterday, windows covered in white paint spots and other bits of building dirt and dust. Really difficult to budge, good scrub with water fed pole wasn’t enough. Anything you guys recommend for these types of jobs?
With jobs like this I would recommend to trad on the first clean and charge accordingly. That's providing the windows are easily accessible of course. Face to glass would be the only way of being sure that you've done a good job. I now use both wfp and trad which enables me to overcome any of these issues. 

Good luck

John

Gleam Clean

Tamar Valley Cornwall

 
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