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Constant one off jobs or constant window cleaning, which would you prefer?

Bongofish

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Pontefract
On a weekend I do a Conny roof or gutter clean a house and I don't know why but I like these jobs.....don't get me wrong sometimes I turn up and think f**k me I'm going to be here hours, but after an hour on a bad Conny roof I've always broke it's back and then only have a max of another hour on it. I charge normally between £80-£120 for a Conny roof ( not had anything massive). Sometimes I'm litterally slowing down on. A Conny roof as I'm charging £100 and could have it done in a hour and feel bad for the customer. 

I like window cleaning but I think in a alternate universe if I could have 2 Conny roofs a day Monday to Friday I would prefer it. No moving around, good hourly rate, and working for 4-5 hours a day for £160-£200 a day with cash at every job waiting. 

I know some of you guys actually outprics yourself for connny roofs as you make more window cleaning or prefer not to do them. But I quite like them, I really like to have a dirty canvas and watch it clean afterwards, customers are always happy and never chasing payments for them. 

Your thoughts? 

 
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We don't particularly like doing them, but they're ok as long as the price is right. We don't class them as conservatory roofs. We class them as a full external soapwash and empty. We make sure the customer knows that and we price accordingly. I will always call them a full soapwash and empty as it sounds much better than just a roof wash to the customer's ears. Part of selling the dream. Selling a dream is largely what sales and advertising is all about.

A clean conservatory is a modest enough dream but if you're the householder fed up of looking at a dirty one it can be important enough. Like a wife looking forward to a new kitchen.

 
We don't particularly like doing them, but they're ok as long as the price is right. We don't class them as conservatory roofs. We class them as a full external soapwash and empty. We make sure the customer knows that and we price accordingly. I will always call them a full soapwash and empty as it sounds much better than just a roof wash to the customer's ears. Part of selling the dream. Selling a dream is largely what sales and advertising is all about.

A clean conservatory is a modest enough dream but if you're the householder fed up of looking at a dirty one it can be important enough. Like a wife looking forward to a new kitchen.
We do the same , you cannot just clean the roof as you will get the sides dirty as well , we always do the whole of the conservatory and all the house windows as well , wether it’s a one off job or regular customer.

 
Yes your right. I make a point of saying every roof clean includes conservatory external gutter clean, all frames and glass and sills. 

 
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Also external gutter cleaning has to be one of the easiest jobs ever with a WFP settup. Even when they look bad and moldy the brush gets a full house if gutter cleaned in about 15-20 mins and can charge £40. But then I sell them the facias and soffits and barge boards to and the windows as I say your better to clean everything below as well as it will all get dirtys. 

 
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Window cleaning, I like the occasional FSG but it's not good for my neck. Conny roofs are always hard work around here.

 
Also external gutter cleaning has to be one of the easiest jobs ever with a WFP settup. Even when they look bad and moldy the brush gets a full house if gutter cleaned in about 15-20 mins and can charge £40. But then I sell them the facias and soffits and barge boards to and the windows as I say your better to clean everything below as well as it will all get dirtys. 
Problem with one off jobs although they are good money is you cannot predict monthly/ annual income , with 4-8 weekly window cleaning you can fairly accurately work out your annual income an important factor when employing or if you have high regular bills to pay 

 
Problem with one off jobs although they are good money is you cannot predict monthly/ annual income , with 4-8 weekly window cleaning you can fairly accurately work out your annual income an important factor when employing or if you have high regular bills to pay 
On a side note,

I was cleaning a house on a nice little estate and a old couple came over to me and asked if I could book them in for a barge board clean ( they called it side house facia). I asked them for there number and said I would contact them and book them in. It was only one side and was pvc and had mole running down it.  At the time they were putting Xmas lights up with Xmas music on. Long story short after my last house I felt in a good mood and went back and said I will do it now as I know you want your house to look the best while putting Xmas lights up. It took 10 mins and they were so happy, ended up paying me £20 , a bottle of wine and got a Conny roof job out of them yearly. I only said it would be £10......sometimes shows what a little kindness can do. I mean I ended up talking to them for 20 minutes after the clean but they were so lovely. 

 
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On a weekend I do a Conny roof or gutter clean a house and I don't know why but I like these jobs.....don't get me wrong sometimes I turn up and think f**k me I'm going to be here hours, but after an hour on a bad Conny roof I've always broke it's back and then only have a max of another hour on it. I charge normally between £80-£120 for a Conny roof ( not had anything massive). Sometimes I'm litterally slowing down on. A Conny roof as I'm charging £100 and could have it done in a hour and feel bad for the customer. 

I like window cleaning but I think in a alternate universe if I could have 2 Conny roofs a day Monday to Friday I would prefer it. No moving around, good hourly rate, and working for 4-5 hours a day for £160-£200 a day with cash at every job waiting. 

I know some of you guys actually outprics yourself for connny roofs as you make more window cleaning or prefer not to do them. But I quite like them, I really like to have a dirty canvas and watch it clean afterwards, customers are always happy and never chasing payments for them. 

Your thoughts? 
I do not like one off jobs.

 
I don't tend to mind one offs as a rule. Reasons :

Son and I work as a two man team.

They add variety.

We have plenty reliable, regular work outside of one offs.

We make sure to charge an appropriate amount extra to make it financially well worth the time and effort. Especially if we soapwash.

Every one off is a new seed sown. The customer sometimes decides to have a regular service when they see the difference after putting up with a scruffy house.

It often leads to neighbours wanting our service when they see the difference. They've perhaps been seeing a dirty house for years.

One offs can be quite financially lucrative.

One offs tend to be jobs we can get stuck into and really see a big difference made in a relatively short time.

The dirtier the house the more the improvement shows.

Negs : Occasionally we come across a house that's been left neglected so long we can't get it to the standard we'd like.

They can sometimes be a bit daunting especially soapwashes in hot weather.

They could be soul destroying working alone.

 
We use a mixture of Chemex Superplus with a good squirt of Fairy Liquid to thicken it up and act as a surfactant. I don't know the science. I just know that we're happy with it and haven't felt the need to try anything else. I can't compare it to tfr or any other products, I've not used any. We don't work to a measure. We go by our experience depending on the state of the job.

When I first got a sample of Chemex I put some undiluted on an offcut of new plastic gutter. I left it on for a week. There were no issues. We use it on everything. The only issues I've found is with the really old inky black window rubbers. It draws the black out like a poultice. Not a problem now as we are aware. In that case we go light on the application and fast and thorough on the wash and rinse. On everything else we give it at least a few minutes dwell time so it can start to work before we get scrubbing. We only scrub when it's needed.

 
I like one offs if they are full exterior cleans or render cleans etc as that's where the money is.

Fsg and conny roofs bore me to death.
That's what I love about the service industry, you can focus on any type of work you enjoy doing and make plenty of money if you know what your doing.

I use to love 1 off job, high ladder window work, I thrived on the hard to do work. Yes it did pay off but i now know there was an easy path to achieving the same end goal. 

 
We use a mixture of Chemex Superplus with a good squirt of Fairy Liquid to thicken it up and act as a surfactant. I don't know the science. I just know that we're happy with it and haven't felt the need to try anything else. I can't compare it to tfr or any other products, I've not used any. We don't work to a measure. We go by our experience depending on the state of the job.

When I first got a sample of Chemex I put some undiluted on an offcut of new plastic gutter. I left it on for a week. There were no issues. We use it on everything. The only issues I've found is with the really old inky black window rubbers. It draws the black out like a poultice. Not a problem now as we are aware. In that case we go light on the application and fast and thorough on the wash and rinse. On everything else we give it at least a few minutes dwell time so it can start to work before we get scrubbing. We only scrub when it's needed.
I always found using fairy I couldn’t get rid of the suds just kept framing up especially if you put pure on it   what do you do to get rid of them ?.. 

 
I always found using fairy I couldn’t get rid of the suds just kept framing up especially if you put pure on it   what do you do to get rid of them ?.. 
Mostly when we use soapmix we're washing out having connected to the customer's outside water supply so the amount of water used isn't an issue. The suds are also a great visual for the customers to see. As against the Chemex alone which although I find it good for the job, it looks like it's only water to the customer, so not quite as impressive looking without the suds.

If I'm rinsing out with pure water, which I have a limited supply of, I rinse all across the top of the window with the brush almost but not quite touching the work. This stops the soap from migrating from the bristles to the work. I just continue with the same process, across the whole width of the glass and down a level at a time. I may have mentioned before, once or a few times ?that I only use fan jets. Don't know whether that makes a difference.

 
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