Window cleaning

Mick,

£25 to clean the whole house isn't that bad actually. I pay that just to clean 5 windows at my office.

I suppose its like everything else you either pay someone to do it or you do it yourself.

A bucket of water a sponge and plenty of elbow grease costs nothing.

Regards

PB

PB

Cleaning the upstairs windows is the problem and whilst walking around in London I have seen several cleaners using telescopic poles which eliminates the need for a ladder.

I have 15 windows so perhaps £25 is not too bad but thats £300pa and I could buy a good cleaning kit for that.

Regards

Mick

True, but you'd still have to do it yourself. What's your time worth? There was shock and horror here (though not in this house)when the window cleaner raised prices from £5 to £6.50 - outrageous! Next time someone moans to me I'll mention the Swindon experience.

HTK

Mrs Mick would actually do the cleaning as she is now only working part time and I am away for 13 hours each day with commuting time taken into account.

Also she can clean the windows to suit herself.

I was thinking of something like this

http://www.hgpromotions.com/window_conservatory_cleaning.php

Regards

Mick

I just buy stronger lightbulbs, innit.

You can see right through him can't you Sir ?


Fritz Von More transparency that's what we need, innit !

Surely cleaning the windows themselves is the easy bit so long as you have a ladder or a long enough pole?

£25 is quite scary, admittedly we're talking about ten years ago but the last time we had a Windows Cleaner I'm sure he charged about four quid to do a four-bedroom house.

I find the frames to be the real sod.

Mine charges £3.00 (3 bed Semi). I hope he doesn't read this forum.

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen B:
Mine charges £3.00 (3 bed Semi). I hope he doesn't read this forum.

Not a chance, he surely can't afford a Naim gear with this salary, and probably not a computer too, unless he does at least 20 customers like you per work day.

I hope you don't ask him back the change for your 5 pounds bill...

Bye.

Oooh, it's filthy! Give it a wipe[/B]

quote:

I hope you don't ask him back the change for your 5 pounds bill...

Not at Christmas.

I can assure you that cleaning glass with a long pole is anything but easy. I've tried it on my inaccessible upstairs windows and conservatory roof. The problem is lack of space to wield the damn pole and to put some pressure on the glass.

Consider the action of your paid window cleaners. They use a side-to-side sweeping motion with their mop head to throughly wet the window and remove residual muck. Then they use a sweeping wrist-turning motion to squeegee the window dry and clean right out to the edges and corners of the glass and along the bottom. Leaving clean glass surface without smears.

With a long pole you are limited to straight up and down motions. ("thrusts" if you will ) Even using a strong, lightweight alloy pole you cannot remotely duplicate the motions of a competent window cleaner.

I can recommend that you buy a high quality squegee head though. We paid about £12 for a small one only 6-7" wide in stainless steel and quality rubber for our small-paned cottage wondows. This came from a specialist cleaning shop in the city. Such a head will outlast your usual supermarket/DIY store quality well beyond the difference in price.

If you can find a specialist cleaning materials & tools shop locally it would be well worth asking for their professional advice. Then try out the kit before parting with your ill-gotten gains.

Buying online you haven't a clue what the quality is like. If you are really hard-up you can buy your own alloy pole from an aerial supplier. It won't be telescopic but when the pennies really count as they do in your case Sir Mick....

He'll have those gnomes up there, on kids wages, innit.


Fritz von another successfull Christopher St Day in Berlin today (Gay Mayor and all still) bit warm at 35°C, though 300,000 + still managed to dance the day tollerantly away (FREE) innit:

Use the window cleaner.

My window cleaner (who also drives taxis at weekends) charges me £8 to clean the bungalow including the conservatory out the back. He doesn't need poles for my place (obviously) but he's got them. He brings his own filtered water that neither smears nor leaves a residue to which dirt in the atmosphere can cling.

I doubt whether my window cleaner could afford a water filter.

I knew a window cleaner in a previous life. They worked part-time on their rounds when they weren't doing their normal shiftwork job. As I remember they made several times the basic wage of your average Postman Mick for just a few hours extra work each day. Most ran nice cars, bought nice houses and took their holidays in the sun. Accidents on ladders seemed to be the main reason for abandoning the gravy train. The round would then be sold off with goodwill to the next willing candidate in the very long queue waiting in the wings. This was several decades ago so conditions may have changed with the recent influx of over-qualified Transylvanian window cleaners willing to work nights. I think I'd probably try asking for £25 too after a quick look at Mick's adobe. He'd probably want his fleet of stretched limo's detailed too for the same price.

Poles are cheaper Mick

Mick, have you suggested Mrs Mick does the chimney in her spare time too. Saves paying for the little scroat from the estate being sent up and having to be pulled out by his feet every year (although lighting a fire underneath them works well, and has the benefit of producing heat too).

Bruce, unhelpfully

Coupla lads with Mungo Jerry haircuts and 5 ASBO's to their names (B Grade)on a rope, up and down a few times, and Mick's yer uncle


Fritz Von I bet Our Mick's sitting on a train in a tunnel at the moment, lights gone orf, and he's dying for a jimmy riddle, but the bogs out of order, and he's thinking, Christ, It's nearly Christmas atready I really must get the chim chim cheroo cleaned, innit. I've heard the poor old girl he kicked on the sdztreet earlier in the year from his second UK house., is now squatting in his Spanish one, on the Costa Del Funny-Handshake

The appearance of telescopic poles is due to the fact that many London window cleaners have been absorbed into companies i.e. are employed. It is no longer safe as an employer to ask employees to work up ladders in case they fall.

B&Q stock the full range of professional window cleaning equipment. As has been suggested, you need a good quality string/rag mop on a pole for the cleaning, and a good quality squeegy on a pole for the drying.

Reminds me of a basketball game I once saw in Warsaw !


Fritz Von Wotta Crib they had


'telescopic Poles'

German Police report: Fat man found grinning, but comatose, on the pavement outside Polish Embassy. The Berlin Police are reported to have received repeated complaints of a man jumping up and down and grinning at his own reflection in the highly-polished embassy windows. It is believed he was beaten with B&Q cleaning appparatus smuggled in by the highly-popular Polish basketball team looking for a sideline to supplement their very low wages in comparison with Western players. This brutal, but effective act of charity is not expected to have any effect on Polish accession to the EU.

Talking of Glaziers, there's a successful Yank and his boys doin pretty well now up Manchester Way I hear ?

Shame on you all! Just like disc copying, complaining about the "pennies" but spending pounds on NAIM gear.

Oh dear! I am in for it now?