hello,
new to the site
my background is in windowcleaning, over 9 years in the South Florida area, with about a 70/30 mix of residential/commercial.
i recently moved and am considering on adding pressure cleaning due to so many people asking me, "do you do pressure cleaning?" so i will be reading alot of these threads for advice.
all the windowcleaners i know use Dawn dish detergent, it cuts grease/fingerprints like an animal, it keeps cleaning no matter how dirty the water is. i have used the GG3 and it does work good for less soiled windows, leaves a nice scent and does slow down the drying time.
just a comment to the person regarding the low cost on the storefront .... this is not uncommon for there to be lots of low prices for strip center work, especially in large metro areas...where i used to live in south florida, large windowcleaning companies would come in and offer new stores in strip centers 1 year free of windowcleaning to get their business, they would do this by billing them every other month for only 1 month of service, they do this for the first 2 years thus giving them a free year of service. the larger companies were able to usually "muscle" into large majority of the stores in the strip center. hey, they were usually just sending a guy out there to work and paying him $6-8 dollars anyway, so it was profitable to the owners of the companies. not saying it is wrong or right , just the way that i know that it is done.
i personally like the residential market because there is only a fracition if any competition in it, the key in my opinion is to be professional in your appearance/work as these people are letting you into their homes.
it can be very challenging to bid residential work, i never use a standard formula, because EVERY job is different. different windows are easier or harder to clean. i personally go and look at every job i do before i give a quote. i can give the person a rough estimate on the phone, but nothing solid unless i see it. you can cause yourself alot of grief by giving out quotes on the phone. if you tell the customer, "i will need to see it before i can give you and exact quote due to certain variables like size of windows, accessible, stains or paint on windows, etc,".... they will always understand and accept this as a mark of your professionalism.
Mark T.