Fife Window Cleaning Services

A CASE STUDY: A WINDOW CLEANING BUSINESS ADDS DRIVEWAY AND PATIO CLEANING TO THEIR REPERTOIRE 

When I first started Fife Window Cleaning Services there was no ambition to add other services, because I didn’t really know they existed and certainly didn’t know how to go about organising equipment and advertising for paid jobs. I don’t know if any readers find themselves in similar circumstances, but exterior cleaning has personally throw up a lot of requests and options as we have become more established.  Services like pressure washing are sought after by our existing customer base and you may also find yourself in a situation where its addition to your website service page is almost forced upon you over time. Or not; but I certainly haven’t regretted adding these services.

I am predominantly a window cleaner, as a percentage of people reading this post may also well be; but the addition of pressure washing has allowed me to branch into new areas of work that can also be done on rainy days, such as mono block driveway cleaning and patio cleaning. I have found the best way to arrange this is to have a list of customers who are happy for the service to be carried out on the next rainy day, therefor I am still earning on all days.

WHERE DID I START?

Before I contacted Rutland Pumps, a small 12 litre per minute machine is all I used-this wasn’t a well-known brand and with my first job being 250 square metres of block paving, it took me a very long time to clean indeed. One of the main issues I found with this machine was in trying to achieve adequate and uniform removal of dirt from between heavily moss infested block paving joins. The water pressure on this machine wasn’t very good and so a lot of time was spent being very detailed on each individual block. 

HOW DID I START TO ADVERTISE FOR PRESSURE WASHING JOBS

Initially, I had a ready-made supply of existing window cleaning customers to rely on. I spent a great deal of time highlighting on my window cleaning work sheet houses that had patios and driveways that were in poor condition. These were to be my first selection of customers to approach for services. To do this effectively I felt it important to have some type of images that I could show of recent work, and this also allowed me an opportunity to test my machine and to come across any issues before being on a paid job. My parents have decking, a patio and a mono blocked driveway; ideal for before and after photos that would then be transferred onto my facebook business page and also onto a double sided cardboard pressure washing flier to go over with existing customers.

WHAT ISSUES DID I FACE EARLY ON

One of the main issues that I found was when pricing a job was that no two similar sized driveways/patios are the same. After initially pricing jobs based on square metre I realised that there are other factors to now consider. The main one being drainage; if the surface is sloped back to the house for example, then the water will follow this natural contour. The main issue this can lead to is extra time, time spent diverting the water away and also time having to ensure on the final rinse down-that all dirty water is not going to re-enter the cleaned area. This can be achieved often with a worker using a brush to divert the water and also through the use of gutter vacs to remove excess water. Ben can offer lots of advice on such issues.

Another consideration when pricing work is water supply; is there an outdoor tap and is the water coming through at a decent rate or will we run out of water every so often and therefore be there longer? I have found most new build areas have a good water supply and the pressure seems good as well. I imagine part of the reason for this is that there have been very few alterations or repairs to the water system of the house.

WHAT DID I FIND WERE THE ADVANTAGES OF ADDING PRESSURE WASHING SERVICES

• It is a good feeling to add new services and learn new skills
• I was able to become a one stop shop for exiting customers for almost all exterior cleaning services
• As mentioned, it allowed me to continue earning on rainy days or also on quiet spells
• When sharing such images of work on my facebook business page this alone drummed up more business , and helped my brand overall I felt

WHAT DID I ORDER OFF RUTLAND PUMPS AND WHY

After my initial entry into pressure washing I obviously felt the machine wasn’t adequate for big areas and also wasn’t ideal to guarantee a good finish on all areas, so I called Ben. We spoke about a few options and I decided to purchase a Honda gx390 21 litre per machine from Rutlands, and I don’t regret it! I also purchased a twin turbo lance and a 15 degree nozzle; and have since ordered a 40 degree nozzle for decking cleaning.

The Honda machine has speeded up cleaning on large areas, probably meaning I can cover twice the area within the same time as before. Time is money and if I had ordered this at the start I could have lined up more jobs per day, hindsight is a wonderful thing! The twin turbo lance is ideal for cleaning block paving and Ben sells a variety of turbo nozzles; all of which tackle harder to clean areas.

I use the 15 degree nozzle for rinsing down paving after I have cleaned it with the turbo nozzle, and depending on how far away you hold it from the surface you will alter the degree of water pressure. The 40 degree nozzle is to be for decking cleaning, whereby I will be able to clean up close to decking while not worrying about burning holes in the wood! Which is exactly what using a turbo nozzle on full power would do. Feel free to have a look on my facebook page, which is linked to the below website-and there are many images of before and after patio/driveway cleaning jobs.

Guest Blog by Chris Fotheringham

www.fifewindowcleaningservices.co.uk