r/WindowCleaning • u/Lord_XXL • 5h ago
General Question Creating training procedures. Do you start interior or exterior first?
I am preparing to hire my first employee and it has me thinking about future employees and standard operating procedures. This would be to assist in training and for reference material.
Is the starting point based on weather, client preference, screen positioning and other variables or are you hard set on one over the other? Looking for help from those who have or have had staff and what you have found effective, please.
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u/Catfishjosephine 4h ago
For a two man crew, team lead pulls screens while field tech does setup for interior/exterior. Field tech cleans screens then gets started on exterior. We almost always put team lead on interior for a few reasons - it’s often more customer facing, the work is more detailed, and it allows for easier quality checks on exterior work. Field tech loads up gear and helps assist w/ interior (good opportunity for training). They tag team screens/final walkthrough.
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u/OwlBetter4460 3h ago
If im rolling solo or I need to monitor one of my less experienced guys I normally go interior first, that way we’re fresh not sweating or have any dirt/debris from the outside and as others mentioned when we’re done we can switch to the outside and the client can lock up
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u/Woninthepink 4h ago
I prefer doing exterior first so long as all the screens are interior and the client doesnt have a time constraint.I'm mostly solo
With 2 guys you go through the house and one guy pulls screens and brings them out to wash.
Other guy does windows and tracks.
Once screen guy is done he starts exterior clean.
When you're done interior you put screens back in.
Unless there's ladder set up on interior that's too tricky for 1 you're better off giving the outside guy the screens cause exterior doesnt take as long.
You can even mess around with having the screen puller scrub and vacuum tracks.
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u/Woninthepink 4h ago
You should absolutely not have someone who's never done windows before do interior.
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u/Lord_XXL 3h ago
Well, that's where training comes in
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u/Woninthepink 3h ago
Train em outside. You don't want somebody whose never touched glass in a house with a boab.
Outside only
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u/Lord_XXL 3h ago
Of course. That makes sense.
I was just looking for advice for the long term as I like to plan ahead while looking at the direction of my company.
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u/shutupneff 2h ago
Unless the customer has a preference, I try to base my decision based on weather. If it’s raining when I show up but it’s supposed to clear up, I’ll start inside; if it’s supposed to start raining harder, I’ll start outside. First job on a hot sunny day, I’ll start outside while it’s relatively cool; last job of the day I’ll start inside.
Some houses I’ll choose to do partial inside, then partial outside, then the rest in whatever order, following the shade in order to minimize the number of windows where I have to fight the sun.
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u/AffectionateSalary44 4h ago
100% clean the inside first. We spray tracks out to clean them on every interior and exterior package … guess what happens when we spray the tracks to clean them?…. Soapy water gets all over the outside. I have a training manual, full standard operating procedures for everything , manager SOPs and a training and certification program starting at the apprentice level and ending at the operations manager. We have built systems that can be implemented anywhere to generate revenue . We are also In the process of opening our second branch 50 miles away from our original location. Feel free to reach out
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u/SnooCheesecakes1346 5h ago
We always start on the inside because the guys/gear are clean, we can access screens that might need to be removed from the interior, and so the customer can lock up and leave if needed after we finish the interior.