Window cleaners – How much is reasonable?
Posted by: Richard in Glasgow, Southside, ThoughtsSince moving in to our house over two years ago, we’ve had our windows cleaned by the same window cleaners who used to do it for Frances’ parents, who lived here before us. I just got back from a nice long run in the snow, and as Frances is away this weekend on her Hen do, the house was empty. I returned to find a note through the door from them saying they’d visited.
They do appear to have closed our gates for a change, so the usual feelings of frustration I have about them dispersed. But the note said that from next month it’ll be £7. It was £5 when we moved in, moved to £6 quite soon after (perhaps two years ago), so from next month it will be 40% more over the course of two years. That’s some rate of inflation.
We do have an end-terrace house, so a few more windows to do than the terraced houses along our street, but given we’ve stained glass on the top-half of many of the windows they don’t have to do as much glass per window. They also get a convenient way to the front of the street through our garden.
I’m curious what is considered reasonable for this service elsewhere? It’s always paid in cash, after they visit: This frustrates me as my work gets interrupted, even before the puffed cigarette smoke that’s invariably being smoked by the cleaner wafts into the house when I open the door. They do seem to have more considerate folk on at the moment, compared to much of last year when gates were left open and you felt positively under siege when being cleaned. Perhaps the time of year means it’s harder to find labourers. I’m also wary it’s heavily cash-in-hand, so probably a bit of a tax-dodge (Something I despise). I’d much rather pay by cheque, invoice or something else that doesn’t require somebody to knock on my door when I’m working.
I challenged the guy to ask about the price rise, given it feels like it was quite recent the price went up. He talked about insurance and other costs rising, but I’m a tad sceptical.
So, I’m curious what the situation is elsewhere. How much is reasonable? Do you bother? If not, is it because you don’t care, or do you keep the outsides clean some other way? Please vote in the poll too!
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Oh, and if you’re in the Shawlands area, or even elsewhere in Glasgow, feel free to recommend somebody that you feel would do a better job than I feel we’re getting.
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February 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Shortly after moving into our house (10 years or so ago) we got a card for a window cleaner through the door. I called the number, and we were “signed up”. Once a month he’d clean the two windows at the front and the ones at the back (small 2 bed terraced house). He’d call me the day before to let me know he was coming – this was so I could unlock the back gate and stick a fiver by the back door.
We had him for a couple of years. I thought monthly was too frequent but he was a scary looking guy (maybe it was the big spiders web tattoo on his neck) and didn’t want to cause trouble, especially as he knew where we lived!
Anyway, after about 3 years he just stopped coming. No explanation. It just stopped. Phew!
A few months later as the windows got dirtier and dirtier I headed to the local DIY superstore and picked up a bucket, spongy thing on a big long mop/stick (which is barely long enough, even with a ladder), and a squeegee (those rubber things to wipe the water off the glass). I now clean the windows maybe 3 times a year (I know its pretty slack) but am happy with the current arrangement.
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
LOL! Yes, the ‘They’re a bit scary to ask to stop” argument has been mentioned up here too! Quite relieved it’s not just a Glasgow thing! That said, it makes me all the more determined to get rid of them somehow. But Frances likes clean windows, and has said if I want to get rid of them I’ve got to do it myself, and that ways lies trouble!
Once a month is definitely too frequent too. Glad I’m not alone there!
Our current “plan” is to get new windows we can clean from the inside when we get around to replacing our current single-glazed windows (we just need to work out about the stained glass feature we really like). After we’ve done the roof… And, of course, the wedding… I also quite like the idea of some technical solution so the water can’t form droplets. However I fear that may be “bloody expensive” (technical term)
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
You can get self-cleaning glass – but it is expensive – work out how long you are going to stay in the house, then multiply etc etc.
I cannot believe people clean there windows 3 times a year. Mine are done every two weeks, and they clean the gutters out when rubbish and leaves block them up. They also keep the wisteria in check so it does not climb onto the roof.
I would be lost without my guys.
Bye the way, when I lived in Middlesex it was £40 per month payable by cheque only and they never cleaned them properly. Did not realise they had corners, thought they were portholes.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:01 pm
OOOPs
mean to say ’spirit of salts’ cleans stained class beautifully, bet it has colours in you have not seen.
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Some of our windows are lucky to be cleaned once a year! We have 3 floors and no window cleaners we asked were prepared to go that high. This means that those bedroom windows have to be done by me sitting on the window ledge and leaning out and the opening half can be reached only by removing the window. Add to that the front windows have leaded lights with ornamental iron bars in front, so it’s not surprising that we don’t get pestered by window cleaners, it’s just too much like hard work!
My mother-in-law lived in an ordinary house and she used to pay £7 per visit ( 2 years ago) which included french windows, but specifically arranged for the cleaners to call alternate months only.
February 14th, 2008 at 10:50 am
The Vote is impossible to answer as you have to know the exact amount of windows and amount of ladder pitches that are required. However i dont see it viable to clean any house for less than £6 you have to consider travel and petrol expenses.
February 14th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Given the people who do our windows turn up en-masse and do much of the street to much whistling and cigarette smoking, I’m not sure that petrol/travel is something that factors in to their calculations much.
It’s an average sized end-terrace house.
No matter how many windows, is the 40% price inflation in just over two years “reasonable”?
March 10th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
A 40% increase to anyone is drastic whether your dealing in pounds or pence…take fuel for instance. The window cleaning job needs to be worth it in the first place, but have you ever thought about it from the window cleaners side? The £5 you were maybe paying to start with may have been totally under priced so instead of speaking to you and explaing that and saying to make it worth our while we are putting them up £2- doing it the way they have, has lead you to comment. I have been in both situations, what your window cleaners have done and what I have explained they could have done and explaining to the customers is certainly the way forward. There are 2 types of people and I can say this from experince…ones who realise your trying to run a business, feed a family, have a life like anyone who is or has worked hard all there life and ones who think that “its only window cleaning”. Just last week one of my customers came out and said to me “thats 2 years you’ve been cleaning my windows, when are you going to put your prices up?” “I said they are fine just now, but if only every customer was like you” and she replied “anyone that appreciates the job you do and understands the costs would be more than happy to pay.” Quite a contrast to your situation indeed. Please bare in mind the costs genuine window cleaners have…. equipment which is not cheap, licences and public liability, van payments, road tax, diesel, and the same if you have a car which you go collecting in which all needs to be paid every month and when we get rained off we are not earning which all needs to be accounted for when pricing house windows. Imagine yourself as a window cleaner and ask yourself, “what would I charge?” and if you think its only worth £4 or £5 imagine how long it would be before you thought this house isnt worth it. How long would you last doing jobs at that price? making sure you were covering your bills providing for your family and having a life?? As the customer you deserve the best for your money, which includes trust, a satisfactory end product, respectably dressed workers and workers who treat you and your house/garden in a manner acceptable to you which means not standing on your plants, shouting and swearing but rather being discreet and respectful. Nothing less is acceptable. Look forward too reading your reply. BWC
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
100% agree with J Bond.
Too many people nowadays want their windows cleaned at prices that are 10 yrs old. The ones who are charging £3.50 you will find 80% of the time the are illegal and claiming benefits.
Richard,
As you are aware in Glasgow and in Scotland window cleaners are required by law to be licensed and insured. This covers the householder from those who would be unfit to hold a licence, especially at this time of the year when bedroom windows are let wide open.
Our overheads with paying insurance and licenses can cost a window cleaner around £300 a year before he even starts window cleaning. Then there are the costs of petrol, equipment etc.. so this all adds up so there is no way a bonifide window cleaner can charge £3.50 a house.
Look at from another angle you are proping up those who do it on the side as you are paying them not to do it for a living through your taxes.
Min price for a house should be around £6.50 no matter what size it is. Which would you prefer a licensed window cleaner who is legit and does it for a living, or a non legit window cleaner if anything goes wrong you would not even know where they live.
A list of licensed window cleaners can be found on a new site, http://www.slwcn.org
In summary £7.00 is a correct price if they a legal.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
My window cleaner has just informed me that he’s putting up his prices (again) to (wait for it) £24.00!!! He can get to Falkirk!
August 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am
We feel that a price hike of 40% per annum is not realistic even in affluent shawlands, and in this economic climate its a tad unreasonable, however we window cleaners do have to make a living and if we are to do a job that no-one wants to do themselves then a fair price has to be charged, agreed?
Also regarding window cleaners not willing or even able to reach top floors of tenements?….nonsense, we have being doing high level work for some time now, and we can reach heights that are probably double than that of a traditional 4 story tenement.
just have a wee look at what we do on our website ga contracts uk, and we wont ask you to remortgage your house to pay for it, promise.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 pm
A lot of window cleaners are now turning to the water fed pole system, its not just a stick with a brush on it that squirts water, the water has to be treated by the window cleaner himself and the equipment costs are now in the hundreds of pounds, if not the thousands of pounds range, I can give you links to systems costing £10,000 and all this is brought on by new European guide lines health & safety now state that if you can do the windows by using an alternative method then it must be used there not saying ladders are banned but there are grey area’s still not covered.
OK we have briefly covered the cost of equipment and why were buying it, Now we move onto Insurance costs, public liability insurance is a must? Its not law but most of us choose to have it, then if you employ, then by law you must have employee’s liability and that cost several hundred pounds.
Then we move onto wages with the legal minimum wage that we all must pay, along with Holiday pay, sickness pay, even if its raining and work cannot be done we still have to pay them.
Then there is the vehicle costs, ware and tear, insurance tax and MOT and if you have to insure your vehicles for any driver then the cost is almost doubled.
I see you live in Glasgow? Then think yourself lucky that your cost is only £7 if you lived in the south and had a terraced house then it would be a minimum of £10 and that is my minimum charge, if you have stained glass then it gets the same treatment as any other glass and all your frames get washed as well.
What else you have to consider is because you live in Scotland, all your window cleaners now need to have a license at considerable cost to the window cleaners
If they cover more than one area then they must also purchase a license for every area they cover again increasing the window cleaners running costs weather he uses the traditional method or the water fed pole method our cost have increased quite a lot to run a window cleaning company.
If your window cleaner is charging you low rates then you can be sure he’s probably on the dole claiming benefits, so may I suggest you ask to see his license before passing judgement on the guy, just because he has tattoos doesn’t mean he’s a criminal or is about to punch your head in because you don’t want him to clean anymore, also if you don’t want him to clean every month then have a word with him and ask if he can do it every other month but don’t be supprised if he puts the price up because now your asking him to clean 2 months dirt of for the same price, It just won’t happen if he’s a genuine window cleaner.
After all the above costs have been taken into account? Now the window cleaner himself has to live, maybe he has a mortgage or if not he still has rent to pay, then he may have a family and like yours they have to be fed and clothed bills to pay and so on and so on? So is £7 a lot to ask?????
Sorry its a long post but a lot of window cleaners out there get a raw deal and I thought you should know just a few of the things that we have to pay for just to run a window cleaning business.
Email and website address supplied.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:13 am
In regards to the self cleaning glass, that stuff does not work very well. It is overpriced and it underdelivers.
June 13th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
For the people that think £6 is expensive to have your windows cleaned off a ladder, I would worry more about if they fall off, because you will be liable as your emplying them.
If a window cleaner is putting the price up by 40% it means it was underpriced and your lucky they are putting your price up most would just drop you as a customer (unprofessional I know but some window cleaners do still do this),
Putting this online tbh is quite amusing, but good all the same.
This is what you would get from our company for your £10 min charge:
Uniformed staff, fully insured, using the latest equipment available to give the best results. regular and reliable cleans, frame cleaning included, inovice left so you can pay the way you choose, no night time cash collections. Full guarantee with all work carried out everytime.
You choose who you use, pay a little more if you are unhappy with your person and get a professional company to lok after your external cleaning needs.
If you want to pay by cheque, any window cleaner should accept them, but remember these have to be paid for and will reflect on the price charged.
You pay peanuts you will get monkey’s.
You will find that you pay more you will get a better service for your money you will get a regular service, insurance and should a problem happen it will be sorted (peace of mind I guess).
I would charge you £10 even if it was one pane of glass upto a small 2/3 bed home, even if we cleaned every house on the street, all customers are treated as individual, we have bills just like any other business, just because we are window cleaners does not mean we should work for less, although the fag hanging out of the mouth, unkept cash in hand types do us ligit window cleaners a bad name
You clearly do not have a clue in the runnings of a window cleaning business.
June 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I cant believe what i am reading here. £7.00 !!! Count your lucky stars, at those prices you should cherish your window cleaner and make sure you give him a big tip at christmas. Who else can you get to come to your house for less than a tenner.
Window cleaning has moved on, we are no longer slaves and tip our caps and say thank you maa’am when you hand us tuppence, we now have mortgages and pay taxes like everybody else, we work outside in all weathers and have to put up with moaning whingebags and ungrateful people who dont appreciate the risks we take to clean your property.
Go ahead do your window cleaner a favour and do them yourself, I for one want to feel happy when i go to work and i am afraid if i had customers like you i would drop them like a bag of spuds.
You could allways employ the beer brigade for a couple of quid and live with the chance that they might rob you.
One things sure in this world you get what you pay for.
June 13th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
You must be joking you tight git.£7 for cleaning your windows is way to cheap for any area.How do you expect a legitimate professional window cleaning business,who has untold expenses and costs involved along with paying extorionate amounts of taxation,to do your windows for nothing.
You are a mean tight whinging bugger and if i was your window cleaner i would piss up your windows not clean them.
Sod off and clean your own glass.
June 14th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I know miserable miser… Would you clean your own windows for a measily £7.00
Sometimes a wc takes on work that is under prices and gets it upto the irght amount gradually rather than stick it straight up so you are lucky, i would double it overnight
How do you expect 2 men to earn any money at 3.50 each per house, then tax, insurances, time off from rain and non productivity , all these add up and need to be put on the cost , its a not just a case of how many windows but a cost for an amount of time taken to do a job to hit a target of money that mkes your business profitable
June 14th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I wouldnt do the fronts for £7, my minimum charge is £10, I too would drop you, do the bloke a favor and sack him so he can fill your space with some decent customers, I pay taxes, NI, insurance, vehicle tax, diesal, service, MOT, public liability, new tools, etc etc etc etc, this trade has changed, I wear a uniform and company logo on van so that your neighbours know exactly who is on your property, I would never smoke at work, the thing is the chances are if you sack your current cleaner the price will rise if you get a new cleaner.
March 26th, 2010 at 10:47 am
I’ve read your posts with interest. I had a run-in with a window cleaner yesterday. For context purposes, I grew up in the wilds of rural Suffolk where noone had a window cleaner. I’ve lived all over the place, ranging from Manchester, Cambridge, Ireland and it was only when I moved to the NE that these un-solicited window cleaners turn up. Last November we moved into a new house. The window cleaner knocked on the door. My dad answered and said that no, we don’t want our windows doing. The next month, the window cleaner just turned up and did them anyway, but from what I remember, didn’t call for the money. He did them last month, we were out, so he did them anyway which annoyed me. I posted the tiniest slip of paper through the door which I didn’t find until after he’d called round for the money. My husband paid him – £3.50. The window cleaner will only do the front 3 windows because of how our house is positioned. Maybe I’m tight, but I still think that’s a lot of money for 5 minutes work. What’s more, he doesn’t do them well-water marks and streaking. I’ve no idea if he’s legit or not. I’ve not requested his services and have signed no contract etc. Also, I don’t want my windows doing every month, 3 or 4 times a year is ample. We don’t have smog any more, thanks to the clean air act, and we’re not on a main road, so they don’t get overly dirty. So, he comes round last night. I want to break this imaginary ‘contract’ I said I wasn’t ngoing to pay him as I wasn’t in when he did them and didn’t ask for them to be done-plus I didn’t have any money. I did say that if he knocked next month I would pay him for this time but I dont’ want him doing them any more. I said it all very politely. He wasn’t interested in negotiating. IF he’d agreed to come bi-monthly, then I’d have gone for that. Nope. I just got verbal abuse and he stormed off.
If he’d been a pleasant person from the outset (another non-uniformed smoker!) offered proof of being insured etc, had been willing to negotiate on how often he comes he would’ve kept the business. I now feel scared about when he comes around in case I bump into him. That can’t be right can it?
April 27th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Hi, I have read all about these price changes i agree that we all have expensive etc. And also depends what area you live in as it varies all around the country. In my area houses start from £8.00 to £20.00 Monthly and ground and first floor flats varies from £4.00 to £8.00 Monthly and includes frames and doors cleaned and in addition these are not the dearest prices neither and nor the cheapest so I think i am somewhere banged on with my prices. All my customers like the way i clean them and thats both ways of cleaning meaning traditional and wfp. So your £7.00 which was posted in 2008 was a reasonable price and so if you add on another 40% for 2010 which would be about £9.80 which is a good price for nower days. Nice to see others have problems from the clients and I thought i was the only one lol..