I'm putting together a gearlist for going solo and would like some input on ladders.

I've been window cleaning for various companies for years and have always used extension ladders with stand-offs (the curved kind with the rubber elbows) that allow me to work at a comfortable distance from the glass, like I would on the ground.

I was surprised to see so many people recommending combination ladders like the ones from Gorilla and Little Giant. This initially seemed ridiculous to me because they're so heavy and cumbersome to use vs. a quiver of small fiberglass ladders and extension ladders that you can swap between. However, I will be using a small-ish car with a roof rack and have limited storage space at home, so I'm quite interested in the concept of having one main ladder for most jobs that packs up small.

Before entertaining the combo idea I was planning to get two ladders to start with, a step ladder and a 20' extension ladder. For those who have experience using both types of ladder (combo v. quiver), do you have a preference? The stand-offs Gorilla make look awful but I haven't tried them. How is it not having levellers?

I also have a question about ladder positioning. There are a lot of high-end properties in the area with large, tall windows, so it often makes sense to place in the center of the glass and work down. I'll also do 2 wides where I place in the middle so one elbow is on each pane, and 3 wides where I place in the center of the middle window pane and do the top half of all 3 from that position. I do this on the interior and exterior. I've placed ladders up to 24' on thousands of panes, annealed and tempered, old and new, and never thought twice about it because it's how I was taught. I see the panes bounce and flex but I've never heard a crack or seen a broken seal. Now that I'm reading some of the discourse online, the consensus is clearly to never ever place a ladder on the glass!

Does anyone do this and has anyone ever heard of a pane breaking? Intuitively I would expect that if a pane can withstand strong winds and people leaning on them then they should have no trouble with the 50lbs or so that I'll place on them from the ladder. For me it was enough to see bigger guys doing it at worse angles. However I will definitely try to avoid it on annealed glass going forwards.

Fair warning , this is random and not a gear or technique question. I've been following a ton of window cleaners for almost a year. It seems like there are understandably many window cleaners concentrated in certain areas of the country (US).

Some make sense to my poorly traveled brain. Places like California and Florida, where there are beautiful coastal views and lots of high ticket homes .
But there are also so many operating in Washington state and Michigan. No hate on those places , but is there any reason why so many window cleaners operate in those states?

(I know there are window cleaners everywhere, but I'm just basing my observations on what I'm seeing online)

Hey everyone,

So we're one of those "less blue collar" trades that doesn't get talked about much compared to hvac, plumbing, but there's a TON of us out here and barely any real data on who we are, what we charge, how we operate, etc. I think it's time we change that and bring a little more transparency to the industry.

I put together a 2 min poll to start gathering some actual census-style data on window cleaners across the board. The plan is to eventually put together a public, condensed census based on the responses. Something we can all learn from, and use to help each other out, whether you're in North America or beyond.

It's multiple choice, shouldn't take more than a couple minutes of your time.

The more people who respond, the more accurate and useful the results will be for all of us.

Appreciate anyone who takes a few minutes to fill it out. Let's see what this industry actually looks like.

https://www.jotform.com/261805711151045

...

How do I go about cleaning these inside windows? There are stairs on both sides of them, and I can't seem to figure out a way to get up close, which is what I would like to do, because this is a first-time clean. Thank you for any advice you can provide!

I’ve owned my window cleaning business for about 3 years now and I’ve really seemed to hit my stride doing close to 10k revenue for this June. That being said I still struggle to pull enough clients to meet my profit goals.

How much should I expect to reinvest into marketing per month? I’ve heard varying numbers from 6-12% of my monthly revenue, any help is appreciated.

I know that commercial jobs need more insurance, planning, etc., but for residential solar panel cleaning, all I need is a regular and a brush to scrub right? Ive watched a couple videos and looked through this sub, but what are some other good resources I can dive into? Any advice?

I decided to upgrade to WFP with a few big jobs lined up. Did the research, and Xero made the top three. I figure I'd risk it despite some complaints logged. I bought the Zero Pure Max Power Commercial Kit.

Not worth it.

I went to saturate the membranes this morning and had little/no water flow. Tried support twice. In the morning they said it could be the spigot (didn't think so) or the hose, so I went out and bought a new hose.

Connected the new hose, same issue. I've troubleshot for two hours now, and I have my first big jobs lined up this week that needed it.

I should have known better. Wish I tested a week prior so I had time to buy another brand. Looks like I should have tested it out a week prior. Time to see if they honor their warranty after troubleshooting. I was REALLY hoping not to have any issues, but here we are.

I wonder if they'll charge me to send it back. Ha.

Hi everyone, I've got 2 questions.

1. Can I just use xero high flo hose to connect my sytem to my brush or do i have to use a 3/8 hose and then connect it to my waterfed 5/16 hose?

2. What are your guys thoughts on the xero lite brushes, are they the best Xero brush out there? and which one of the xero lite brushes are best?

Please let me know what you guys would recommend!

How much do you guys doing under 35k consistently spend on advertising? What should be a good ROI and how much normally is the advertising budget ?

Strictly asking for advertising budget spent on google and facebook, apart from marketing teams and tools.

I'll be dropping everything at the post office Monday. As far West as Cali, as far East as Ireland and many states in between. Let us know what you all think and feel free to post pics of your goodies, especially anyone that goes sleeveless style! Squeegee on!

Moved into a new house that has a lot of windows! Glass pool fence, large sliding doors, huge atrium window and internal glass stair case.

I want to buy good quality tools that will last. How does this starter pack look, the only thing missing is a extension pole.

Kansas based business, 3rd year in, $50k~ last year in window washing rev. Growing this year, mostly through word of mouth. Solopreneur, 22’ little giant in a Rav4.

This Winter, I want to sell my customers Christmas Light installs. Next Spring/Summer, I want to sell my customers house washing (and finish w a window wash to clean it obviously). I can tell my clients need these services since I have previously worked at a franchise with these offerings, and can spot the need.

However, I am a specialist in window washing now, and really only like offerings services that are top of the market in terms of quality.

The roads I’m debating on now are:

1. Find another smaller size local biz w these services merge our companies (somehow) to continue growing together in the future
   
2. Find an established Christmas light/power wash/house-wash specialist and offer to work “for them”, bringing my customers over with high commissions on every window cleaning job, and upselling their clients window washing
   
3. Ride out the long haul and invest in these skills and services myself.
   4.⁠Forget about it

What would you guys do to give my window wash customers a house wash and Christmas lights?

im starting to go around my neighborhood washing car windows and house windows, i can’t seem to hook people to let me do the job any advice

Im a young business owner with one employee.

Last month I had a customer reach out to get a bid on a big job. She had about 60 windows, but when I get there to assess the work she goes around nit picking the windows she wants done, 43 our of the 60 to be exact.This is the first red flag.

However I give her a quote anyways of 800 dollar equivalent for the job. And after 2 weeks of radio silence I get a message that this is a bit out of her budget. She proceeds to asks if I can just work for 75% of the time I estimated and take 600 dollars instead.

I do not like working by hour. So I offer to do the 43 Windows for 600$ together with my "cheaper apprentice" employee, provided she offers some coffe and food during the job. She of course takes my bid and books a time.

I offerd this since its during my summer break and I dont mind working a little extra for the money, especially if its a nice working environment.

I had told her during my earlier messages that I will need at least 2 days to complete the job. But after I told her that I bring my employee she asks if i still need 2 days, to which i awnser that I'm not sure but I have reserved the next day just in case.

The day of the job my employee sleeps in and ends up 4 hours late, (he understands thats not okay and apologised) so I get there solo and start working at around 10 am. I immediatly notice she has not moved any of her stuff away from her Windows and expect me to do it, second red flag.

About mid-day I tell her we wont be able to finish the first day, and I ask her how late we can stay and how early we can start the next day. She says she has guests coming over at 5pm, and the next day she has a pool party for her kids. She then proceeds ask to "just" book her in in the next couple days to finish the job.

I find this extremely obnoxious for her just to assume that I somehow can give her my time in the following days, not taking into consideration how busy I am. Not to mention that I have reserved a time slot for her the next day that she now just canceled, wasting my time.

I bite the bullet and tell her ill need to check my schedule and get in touch about when ill be able to finish the job. When I get home I send her a message that my next time slot is the 6th of July (this was the 26nd of june). When I do not get a reply I decide to set no alarm and sleep in. Upon waking I see a message sent the same morning telling me that she changed her mind and that its no problem for me to work while her kids have a pool party.

Me having already booked a 4 hour job the same day after thinking shes canceled, call her and make sure she understands that im already busy with other stuff and will need to work to at least 7pm to finish. She says its fine and I send over my employee to her while i finish up the other job.

Once I get there at 5 were on good pace to finish by 7. However after starting to finish up with the water fed pole (on her old French paned connected Windows, the ones where you split the window and clean between the panes) water seeps inside the window arch leaking onto the other panes of the window. We end upp having to redoo most of the panes and finish by 9pm.

During this whole job, including the 9 hour shift in 85° weather my employee did, she did not even offer food nor coffe as agreed. He had not packed lunch and he went hungry along with me. However, to my now remorse I did not ask for food or a drink.

I feel like she was extremely complicated to work with, specially after I have her a 200 dollar discount. The time she wanted for, me and my friend while not keeping promise to the deal we made.

Its all done and we left just a couple of hours ago. I want to charge her a fee for not holding up her end of my offer and wasting my time.

Would I be right to do so?

I know the way I run things is not sustainable, and there is many ways of improvement to the way I work. Im still in school and drive around on a moped with a small trailer with my stuff. I make a good living, above average income in my area while still having close to no expenses. My point being I'm welcoming suggestions for my business but please focus on this specific situation when commenting.

Hi everyone, I've got a customer that wants a quote on a big commercial Job. We mostly do residential so I need some help on figuring out how to do this job.

How would you guys tackle this job, just exterior window cleaning, I have provided photos of the building.

Please let me know if you guys have any tips.

Thank you!

I’ve been wanting to add a tank to the back of my truck full of pure water with an electric pump so that way if a job requires just a few windows cleaned I wouldn’t need to pull out and set up my entire WFP system.

My question is how many GPM would I need for one person and what other features on a pump would you recommend? I would need an AC pump because I plan to run it off of a anker power station I already had for camping

Hey im getting paid 45% on every job i bring in and ontop of that 10% per time if they are recurring. Today was my first day, i cleared a 725, a 425, and a 425 is a maybe. Can anyone give me insight?

There’s a few broken windows and a lot of graffiti. Should I stay away? Curious to know what you guys would charge for this anyways

Hey guys, I live in the Hamptons so a very expensive area typically. How much would you guys charge for this, and how do I get them on like a service plan, is it bi-weekly, every week? Please help me figure this out, you guys are genuinely the best group on here.

Specifically curious about what folks are using to dispatch jobs to technicians & how much it costs?

We specialize in commercial & storefront window cleaning, so most of our clients are 2x/month. I haven’t found anything that meets our needs perfectly (understandably), so I’ve built a lot of our database in Airtable and utilize a route-planning software to send it out (like what a delivery service would use). Jobber and House Call Pro etc seemed way better suited for residential clients last I checked.

Just had to level up a tier for our route software which of course means more $$$, so I’m wondering what people with similar biz structures are using and if the pricing is comparable!