Hey guys! Putting together my first commercial estimate of this size. What would you charge per pane for each level
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4 lower
Level 4 upper
This is how I’m breaking it up, these are not all the pictures so please don’t waste your time adding everything up. Just suggestions on price per pane!
This would be all water fed pole work, exteriors only. I can reach the top of the third level with a 40 foot pole. Maybe about another 20 feet to the top of the fourth.
How much are you charging that 3 story house you do every few weeks for the 3rd floor panes? Or what are you charging for one level commercial jobs? These are going to help you figure a starting point.
The factors I would consider are:
How high can I effectively clean with my current gear? Do I need to purchase a new pole or extensions. (You mentioned before that your current pole is a hand-me-down Reach-it Mini, and I’m guessing you already have the extensions to reach the 3rd level). In your video there seems to be a moderate amount of flex when you are cleaning that 2nd level window starting at the 1:40 mark. The higher windows are going to be more difficult with both applying pressure and dealing with the drag of the Boar’s hair brush. Everything is going to be amplified the further you extend the pole.
If you are going to need to buy new gear to actually do the job, that needs to be factored in to your figures. I use a Northern eLite High modulous carbon fiber graphite cored pole. It has one of the highest levels of rigidity even at full extension. It keeps me from fighting a swinging wet noodle when transitioning form pane to pane. WCR no longer carries it, but I’m sure the Xero Golds are comparable. The last thing you want is to smack or scratch glass because the pole is swaying or unruly swaying when fully extended.
Are you going to be able to stand at ground level and reach over that “awning” and get the 4th level windows with the current pole? Are there any other places where the ground level is too low for you to reach the highest with the current pole? Will you end up needing to rent a lift?
Any equipment rental will need to get factored in to your final total. Since I do my larger commercial buildings overnight, I rent a light tower and charge the client for the cost.
So if you take into account that you have the ability to do all of the work with the pole you’ve got, does the building have enough pressure for you to run your DI all the way up without a booster pump? Those boar’s hair brushes with the over the top rinse bars lose a great deal of pressure the higher you go.
If all of your gear is up to par to get the job done, how often are you going to do said job?
If it is a one off, it would be best to make due with what you got. You will probably struggle a little, and it will take longer and not be as efficient, but having that learning opportunity may be worth it. You can use the time it took you to do the job to base future bids on. If this is going to be a regular recurring job, put together a complete kit through Jordie, that is going to handle this size job regularly. I spent $2k on the pole and another $2k on my Xero pure RO DI set up, and another $1k in hoses, fittings, brushes, etc. Doing those two dealerships on a monthly schedule is about $1,200 so in less than 6 months those 2 jobs alone paid off the investment. But that’s not factoring in my overhead.
Which leads me to my last item. How long do you think it is going to take you to do the job? Use your minimum hourly rate to make sure you are covered then add on a profit buffer.
For me on the initial cleaning it was 7 hours to do 315 exterior windows up to 3 storeys and another 5 hours to do 240 interior up to 2 storeys. I know I have to make $50/hour so I needed to charge at least $600 to break even without considering the new equipment purchases. I charged $750 for the one building and only made $150 profit which was applied to the cost of the equipment. Subsequent cleanings have become faster and the entire cleaning can be done in less than 8 hours, which means I now have $350 in profit to apply to the gear from just one job.
I am looking at bidding some new hotels in my area that are up to 4 storeys and have about 30-40 windows per level. Central FL doesn’t have the same fee market like other portions of the country. I’ve heard Luke saying they charge $3.50 per pane minimum for ground level work, I am at the high end of the my local commercial market by charging $1.50 per pane, where as most are charging $1. I was thinking on charging an additional $1 per level on top of the $1.50, so 2nd storey would be $2.50, 3rd would be $3.50, and so on. Based on those numbers, for me I need to make sure I can do that entire job in less than 9 hours to make a profit. With those numbers I am only looking at $480.
What it’s going to come down to is whether or not I am going to be able to clean the highest level of windows in less than 5 minutes each, including movement around the building. If not, I will need to recalculate and increase the price.
Finally heard back from the maintenance manager the other day, I’ll get to do this location twice a year, they are giving me the pole that they have for it, and I’ll get to have first dibs on bidding their other locations!!
