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Speed but quality.

Azz1

Member
Messages
57
Location
Manchester
Evening everyone again. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas and tips to be quick but with the quality of the work there too which I understand it's paramount. My work is getting really good but sometimes I feel that I might spend to long on a house before moving on to the next. E.g Hose reel for the hose, cloth to wipe the house as it gets wound in. Any suggestions please. Thanks ?

 
Evening everyone again. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas and tips to be quick but with the quality of the work there too which I understand it's paramount. My work is getting really good but sometimes I feel that I might spend to long on a house before moving on to the next. E.g Hose reel for the hose, cloth to wipe the house as it gets wound in. Any suggestions please. Thanks ?
Even after a couple of years im still speeding up now. I soon got to the quickest I could wfp them, but things like moving the hose around with you etc. Plus the more you do a particular property, you pick up all its little foibles and hazards (wheely bin wheels, plant pots etc) Most of it just comes with practise and habit, and most 2/3 bed homes shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes.

 
Evening everyone again. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas and tips to be quick but with the quality of the work there too which I understand it's paramount. My work is getting really good but sometimes I feel that I might spend to long on a house before moving on to the next. E.g Hose reel for the hose, cloth to wipe the house as it gets wound in. Any suggestions please. Thanks ?
Work on your own home. 

Watch videos on the best wfp techniques ie 

Frames top sides pane rinse 




 
On 06/08/2020 at 23:48, Apw1210 said:

Work on your own home. 

Watch videos on the best wfp techniques ie 

Frames top sides pane rinse 


Is it just me or does that guy seem to be missing bits of the window out? ?

Anyways, this is something I'm also striving for. Regarding the actual cleaning side...I think the best way to speed up is rinsing on the glass. It's not something I dare do right now. Maybe one day I'll have the balls but I think this is the key to really speeding up.

 
Is it just me or does that guy seem to be missing bits of the window out? ?

Anyways, this is something I'm also striving for. Regarding the actual cleaning side...I think the best way to speed up is rinsing on the glass. It's not something I dare do right now. Maybe one day I'll have the balls but I think this is the key to really speeding up.
No it's not just you, that technique is terrible, for one it's completely random, no consistency to it, secondly the corners of the glass are getting missed, thirdly there is no rinse.  Actually just watched it again, there is a rinse, so let him off on that point  ? 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just showed this to my daughter who is training with me at the moment and asked her for her observations. 
Her first words were, “he’s missing bits,” followed by, “why is he doing the frame at the bottom before the window? He’ll pick up all the muck up off the bottom and put it all over the glass.”
Which is probably why he has to rinse everything twice. My comment

 
Baffled as to why the guy in the vid isn't cleaning right across the top of the frame first, I am guessing he was spending extra time on the 1st window as it's right next to a tree so will most likely have more bits on the glass, which what initially looked liked too much rinsing but needed on some windows which some newbies won't or don't get, His technique on the second window looks better. 

Technique is key to 100% results crack that on the first clean and after that it's easy enough to speed up overtime of course you also need to have the confidence to walk away from a window(s) after a quick thorough clean rather than spending too much time and using more water than necessary, I watched a lad last week who was fairly new who was working for a lad I know he took twice as long as me on a regular clean on the same style house but he was thorough. 

Moving from one house to the next should be straight forward and quick just depends on the house and if you are dodging around cars on the drives etc 98% of houses should be easy to move from one to the next it comes with time and experience, I always wipe pole hose after each job as I don't want dirt getting inside the pole always baffles me as to why some lads don't carry a cloth yet use a carbon pole worth £275 upwards 

 
Really glad I use a swivel he his missing bits of the window terrible example of cleaning windows,  first window I personally would clean the two top openers before cleaning the middle big pane, but each to their own and if that works for him then whom I’m I to criticise. 

 
Evening everyone again. I am wondering if anyone has any ideas and tips to be quick but with the quality of the work there too which I understand it's paramount. My work is getting really good but sometimes I feel that I might spend to long on a house before moving on to the next. E.g Hose reel for the hose, cloth to wipe the house as it gets wound in. Any suggestions please. Thanks ?
I find that you develop a technique then stick to that technique, the minute you deviate from your technique is the minute you start losing time.  It's ok to alter your technique but only do that between houses or your days work.  

I also find it helps to imagine a timer ticking and you have say 10 seconds to do a set of frames, 20 seconds for each pane of glass and you have to finish in the time or faster if you can.  When I think of it like that I go through the work faster.  Then you can think of trying to save seconds on each pane by changing your technique but still keeping your rhythm and quality high.

In car factorys they monitor the workers who do the same thing every day, all day.  They monitor things like how many foot movements they make to get a part and then attach it to the car or whatever it is they're doing.  If they work out the worker is making one footstep too many then they tell them and instruct them how they can save that unnecessary movement.  It's all about making the whole factory as efficient as possible.

For window cleaning, the same principle can be applied.  Like for me I wipe down the sills, most say it's not warranted but it's my choice as I believe it's better, I also charge higher so for the sake of 3 minutes it doesn't make a massive difference to my day.  However last week it dawned on me, I have a big carrier bag of clean microfibre cloths, each house I use a fresh clean cloth.  Over time some of the cloths have become worn out so I leave them in the bag and find a better cloth.  This is costing me seconds each time, I should not be trying to find a better cloth, it should be a case of grabbing any cloth out of the bag without looking, every cloth in that bag should be suitable.  So tomorrow I'll be sorting through them all and chucking out the unsuitable worn out ones.  It's small things like that that cost you seconds but add minutes to your day.

Allowing dwell time also helps.  If you can develop a technique that wets the window before cleaning it, it just gives that few seconds to soak into the dirt before attempting to remove it.  I do all the frames first and the water from the top frame is pouring down the panes of glass below so it is already wet before I put the brush on the glass. Look out for any bird droppings, give them a quick squirt with the brush then do another window and come back to it.  

Lastly don't worry about doing a house in 10 minutes.  Everybody works differently as you can see in that video.  So long as your earning £25+ per hour then that's ok, over time you can work on it and push it higher, either through charging more or speeding up but you do need to focus on both, speeding up on its own is no good as you become a busy fool.

 

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