Hi guys, I need some help with pricing/estimating. I’m in the process of starting up, I have some decent gear which cost an arm and a leg to buy here.
I’m looking to start with residential windows and solar panels and eventually add commercial. Most homes here are 4x2 single storey 8 windows and 2 patio doors and by the looks of some houses the windows just don’t get cleaned.
I know Luke has said that his min price is $125 but I’m not sure how the market here would respond to that price. I’m would like to make $60 aus per hour to start with which would pay me a decent wage and leave enough to reinvest into my business. I’m not quick at the moment but I’ll get better with practise.
What would you price 8 windows with fly screens and 2 patio doors outside only and what price per solar panel to wash and dry.
It’s always easier to help with estimates if we can see a picture. But off the top of my head trying to have a good idea of what you’re describing I would guess $90-USD. That is for inside and out. Outside only, prob just whatever your minimum is. For my area, I have a $75 minimum as long is its within about 30 minutes drive. I feel like I’m usually mid to upper range and pricing, definitely not the highest in that area though. Part of the pricing especially does have to do with the area you’re in. The few times I have cleaned solar panels, I have used my water fed pole and rather than charging per pane, I just tried to have an idea of how long it would take and bid about $50 an hour for them. That’s just me though. Others will say higher, others might say lower. @Lewsqueegee what do you think about pricing down under?
I can only upload 1 pic at present.
Pictures as requested. As per pricing a mate who does maintenance suggested $40 aus which I thought was a bit low as it’s taking 90mins to do these windows at the moment. The wife said she wouldn’t pay $125 I thought $60 aus was reasonable for outside only. The solar panels would be done by a ladder and water brush not wtp and I thought that $5 aus per panel was a reasonable price.
As many might agree, your hourly rate average will not always be consistent. I started out trying to be at about $50-USD per hour. So 90 mins would be at least $75 for me. Find an hourly rate you’re comfortable with and then go from there. It shouldn’t take long for your speed to pick up.
We are a 125.00 minimum too. Otherwise, we’ll be driving all over the place for small jobs. Sometimes people call for a couple of “high” windows they can’t do. So the minimum helps deter that, though some have paid 125.00. We usually will do some other windows to total the 125.00 so they get some value. But that’s the minimum for us to pull in the driveway. Just set a per hour amount and go from there, if you don’t have a minimum.
Hi @Clearview,
Firstly where about are you located?
If rural or in a smaller town then prices may need to be a little lower than the major cities.
Secondly how professional do you appear?
Do you have a uniform, business cards, invoice pads/system, good quality equipment and sign written vehicle?
If the answer to any/all of these questions is YES then you need to set a minimum as suggested.
This is not the same as your hourly rate as it needs to include movement between jobs, set up time and investment in business (expenses).
The small jobs eat up the same amount of admin, travel, investment in tools and set up time as the big better paying jobs so this must be reflected in pricing.
You can easily charge $110 aud for your service as long as it is quality.
It doesn’t matter if you take a little longer at the moment as long as you provide a good service.
Hi Lewsqueegee and thanks for the reply. Very good info.
I’m in Perth sor and my intension is to provide a professional service having been a manager for 30 yrs.
I’ll be getting business cards/flyers done shortly along with an abn.
I’m trying to keep my costs down though until I can get established hence the reason for residential first. Any info you can supply would be great.
Awesome! 
You are certainly in the right place.
I have been cleaning windows for 18 years and still learn new things occasionally here. 
Everything that I can teach you about general window cleaning Luke has already put into an informative video! 
Local supplies I like to get from VCS and PowerVac in Osborne Park but you also have a big supplier sor somewhere near Bibra Lake(?), online I purchase mainly from WCO https://windowcleaningonline.com.au/
as they offer good prices and customer service.
In the summer we do all external direct sun work as early as possible and try to stay in the shade where possible between 9am-4pm,working your way around the building tracking the suns path to avoid direct sunlight as the water dries quick when it’s 42 degrees in the shade! 
Learn to use both hands at the same time and poles with a Moerman Fliq or Ettore Backflip as these will be your best friends when you get the hang of them(save your knees and safer than ladders).
Our market can definitely sustain $110 pricing. You can even get $165 if you are doing a top quality job on screens and tracks as well.
Also, what we are willing to pay personally for services isn’t really relevant to pricing, especially if we are not someone that usually seeks such service (how often have you or your mate had your windows cleaned in the past?)
Don’t go down the path of low pricing while you are getting started just take more time with your jobs.
You will naturally get quicker over time but it is very hard to increase your pricing if it is too low.
Stay safe on the tin roofs and don’t forget to Slip,Slop,Slap! 
Welcome to the forum, any other questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Lewsqueegee
Great and thanks for that. I tried vcs and they had very little to offer when I went there. Power vac was better but still didn’t have everything I needed. I got a Moerman belt which I needed to return as it broke after 1 days use. That was a 2.5hr return trip.
I’ve just recently done my own windows which was full detailing of the window slides,screens and windows. That took 3.5 hrs due to a built up of grime on the window tracks. So hence the reason for asking about price.
I can now do each window in 5mins glass only which is better than I was achieving.
A question for you. Sometimes the screens have an insect residue which is white and about 20mm long and it’s a pita to remove, is there a quick way of removing this?
I take it your in Perth?
Cool,
Yeah VCS is just handy for Ettore rubber/channels/poles if u are stuck and need stuff ASAP (they can also order stuff in) and most of the Moerman stuff is pretty average to be honest.
Order online when u can and save the drive and they have everything there in the one place!
Shoot us a pic of the insect residue if u can.
If it’s the stuff I think it is it leaves a bit of a stain behind after you pick it off. I think it might be acidic and so stains the screen.
Anyhow you shouldn’t come across it too often.
Mop and soap…
Hi
I’m just over the ditch in NZ, welcome to the forum.
2 other sites you might try are windowcleaningworld.com and windowwcleaningsupplies.com.au both supply quality products for traditional or wfp.
I use Wagtail products as they are light and real easy to use. Tried Moerman squeegees but couldn’t get with them. If you can get a wfp set up then that will really help you in your hotter days. I use Gardiner poles, 27 ft for high reach and I have two 8 ft personal poles, one as a wfp, the other as my handheld pole.
For pricing, as the comments above say, aim for $70/hr and you should be right. I find the American pricing would be too much for NZ and probably Australia too, if you can, test the competition for their prices - how much would they charge to clean your house???
Also be as professional as you can. Business cards, graphic shirt and van.
Here in NZ older people who claim benefits are allowed to claim for a window cleaner 4 times a year (exterior clean). Whilst this tends to be slightly smaller jobs, do a good job and you WILL get great referrals to family and friends. Whilst your building up your business, do the best job you can, be friendly and you’ll do well.
Cheers
Giles
Hi Giles and thanks for the info. A wfp would be great to have but it’s probably out of my price range at present.
I have a fairly new Ute so this will be my transport. Business cards and flyers are the next things on my agenda along with an ABN.
That sounds great about older people on benefits being able to claim for window cleaning though I haven’t heard of that here in Oz.
[Lewssqueegee here the photo of the white deposit I was talking about which is a pain to get off the screens.
Ok, I think it looks like plaster/paint left over from the builders clean or bird poo!
If the units you have been cleaning were only built recently and it is hard then it will prolly be plaster/paint. It will leave a bit of residue behind. You can try break it down with detergent and a stiff bristle brush and then a rinse with the garden hose before drying. Usually there will be a light stain from the lime in the plaster but it is not your job to remedy this as you are just providing a regular maintenance clean (not a builders clean) this is the problem with people hiring amateurs or general cleaners to perform final cleans…
The glass gets scratched, the high windows get left completely and residues such as silicon, paints and plaster are left behind.
If you try to fix everything then you will be there all day and maintenance cleans don’t allow for that in the price so learning the difference between maintenance and restoration will help you greatly as there can be quite a lot of hard water staining in Perth that requires restoration as well but this is not generally factored into maintenance cleaning and incurs an additional charge and as mentioned we have a lot of greedy builders providing half finished homes so you can spend all your time fixing up their mistakes but the client will not wish to pay for it.
Don’t get me wrong, the occasional piece of builders debris or hard water staining can be factored in but if you try to remove everything you will lose a lot of time for very little gain financially (most clients do not wish to pay the extra) or emotionally (often client doesn’t notice the “extra mile” and doesn’t really care).
Hi lewsqueegee and thanks for the reply. It’s not let over plaster/building debris the house is 5 years old and the screens have been cleaned plenty of times.
It could be bird poo but normally that comes off with some hot water. I had it on a patio screen which is under cover so I doubt it’s bird poo.
All I know is it’s extremely hard to remove. I ended up using a hard bristle tooth brush and a bit of elbow grease to remove it.
On the subject of hard water is there any way to remove it quickly.
Without eyeballing it it’s hard to say then! 
Hard water…that’s a hard question!
Pretty much all of the available products work with some elbow grease and a non scratch pad (available from Bunnings) if it is not etched in (in which case it requires a cut and polish with a mechanical tool best left to professionals)
Hard water is definitely a strange beast…
Sometimes you can have a piece of glass that you can’t see threw where it is so caked on that you don’t think you have a chance and it comes up perfect. 
Other times you will have a pane that is maybe 20-30% stained and it will not budge at all (you go over it twice just to make sure with extra elbow grease and still it looks like you didn’t touch it!).
The trick is to do a test on a small area to see if it is coming off. This saves a lot of unnecessary work and mess if it isn’t going to work. Test for free and explain it will be x dollars for removal as this is glass restoration and not glass cleaning.
Thanks mate, that’s really informative. All I need now is my flyers, business cards and ABN.
Hi All, I’m new to window cleaning as a business but have been in the building game for over 30 years and have dabbled with window cleaning as part of my cleanup work so haven’t put much thought into pricing for this service.
One thing I have learned though is it’s hard to take $ amounts per unit as a good pricing strategy for any service, there are just too many variables such as marketing, travel time and other business costs (overheads) such as insurances and vehicle/tool/maintenance etc which vary from business to business and different areas.
A much better way to work out what to charge would be to base the pricing on ‘time per unit’, i.e. how many minutes would it take to do an average sized window?
Warning! what follows is an example only 
(per pane)
outside clean only = 2 minutes say
scrub/scrape and clean = 4 minutes
screen = 2 minutes
travel & setup average per job = 20 minutes say.
Given that we need to work out how many windows we can do a day, say the average job has 20 windows/panes with 10 screens and are outside only as a typical scenario.
(20 x 2 winows) + (10 x 2 screens) + (20 travel/setup) = 80 minutes per job
Working a standard 8 hour day we can do say 6 jobs per day.
Note that travel takes up 2 hours per day!
Now we need to know how much our overheads will cost for the year so add up all of your insurances, vehicle rego’s, maintenance and tool repairs/maintenance etc. Let’s say that costs $20,000 per year (remember, your vehicle will need replacing every few years, in Australia the going rate per km is $0.66/km and at average about 20k/year that’s $13,200!).
Overheads per year = $20k
Ideally we would like to work 35-40 hours per week (at least your possible future employees will) and have some holidays/sick days so billable hours per year would be around say 1750:
46 weeks x 30 hours per week (allowing for travel times) = 1380 billable hours per year.
Now, how much do you want to ‘take home’ per year or week? How much will it cost to pay an employee?
Let’s say you want to earn $100k per year gross to keep it simple, this means just to take this amount home you need to allow:
$100,000 / 1380 hours = $72.46/hour
Now divide your overheads by billable hours to get a rate for overheads per hour:
$20,000 / 1380 hours = $14.49/hour
This gives us a total of $86.95 per hour, let’s say 85 as it’s not an exact science, it’s an estimate 
Ok, we can now work out our unit rate to suit ‘my’ business based on time per unit and our hourly rate we need:
85 / 60 minutes per hour = 1.45/minute
Given our average job estimate above at 80 minutes the price for the job would be $116.00
Sorry for the long winded post but hopefully this will bring to light the reason you need to work out your own prices, how to work them out and why other contractors charge what they do. What we need now is a consensus on ‘how long it takes’ to do a process, not just the going price.
Yes, you will be subject to the local pricing ‘climate’ but that should be reflected in the services you offer and equipment used, don’t over invest in gear too soon and find ways to keep overheads and downtime as low as possible.
cheers,
Mick