window cleaner charges

(37 Posts)
bananabrain Wed 12-May-10 14:18:40

Just wondering how much window cleaners generally charge as I think ours seems expensive.
We have one downstairs window at front, plus a conservatory across the back (smallish house but a fair number of separate window panes on conservatory.) Then 4 windows upstairs which are washed with a long pole thingy. It seems to take 10-15 mins max.
We're in East Anglia, if area makes a difference. He charges £15 (started at £11 and has crept up....) How does that sound??
If that's the going rate I think we might just have to start doing them ourselves.... or more likely leave them to get dirty as we did before!

jenduff Wed 12-May-10 14:24:21

Midlands - 2 windows downstairs, plus window in front door and then patio doors, plus 5 upstairs windows by ladder £8.50 a week, nice friendly fit bloke, does a good job, chats to the DC and comes bang on every 6 weeks - I always give him a cuppa and biscuits so he keeps coming back to give me an excuse to go ogle

Our last window cleaner charged a tenner came when he fancied and did a crap job.

jenduff Wed 12-May-10 14:24:57

Oops not £8.50 a week - £8.50 every six weeks

Shaz10 Wed 12-May-10 14:26:16

3 bed terrace, 8 windows, £12. He comes once a month.

trice Wed 12-May-10 14:26:42

we pay £22 every two months

lots of windows and a conservatory

Pinner35 Wed 12-May-10 14:28:33

We have a townhouse so 3 storeys.....ours come every other month, take about 15 mins (there are a team of them) and they charge £20. This hasn't changed in the 4 years we've had them.

CMOTdibbler Wed 12-May-10 14:32:56

17 quid, quite a lot of windows and a glass lean to. Comes every 5 weeks and v good

bananabrain Wed 12-May-10 14:46:20

Thanks for the replies, sounds like our £15 isn't vastly different then - maybe just a bit pricey for a small house.
It seems like a lot of money for 15 mins work, but I know there are tools/fuel etc to pay for and actually our cleaner does bring his own water in his van!!
I'm probably being stingy and begrudge paying someone to do something that I could DP could do!!

biglips Wed 12-May-10 14:53:00

he sounds like that hes a proper window cleaner (legitimate) and not a window cleaner who is working on the side. Dp fills his water tank up in his van when hes out on jobs as it take hours to fill it up.

IsItMeOr Wed 12-May-10 14:56:57

Ours is £5 once a month but he only does the front windows for that. When I asked if he was going to do the back windows the first time he came, he looked at me as if I was mad, laughed and said, not today.

When he next came I asked again about doing the back - which he did - and it was £10 that time.

Sorry for the ramble, but is it normal for them to only do the front windows confused? We live in London, rows of mostly terraced houses, so maybe it's to do with not being able to get around the back if people are not home when he calls?

emsyj Wed 12-May-10 15:29:03

Ours is £10 once a month for the front and side - 2 big windows and a small (single bedroom size) bay at the front and 2 medium sized windows at the side. It's £15 to do the front AND back but yes IsItMeOr you'd have to be in to let him through and we never are when he comes - altho suppose we could leave the gate open if we were that houseproud!

To be fair we live yards from the prom and our windows are covered in salt and crap from the 'bracing sea air' to the point where you can barely see through them in the winter after a month's wear and tear, so £10 is reasonable for us but might not be if you live somewhere where they don't get that dirty. Ours looked like frosted glass after the recent bad weather.

nickschick Wed 12-May-10 15:32:05

Ours only does the front (back is too secure for easy access) he does front room window 1 upstairs window,small window near door -rinses all the UPVC and wipes ledges and door - £1.50 every 2 weeks grin.

littledawley Wed 12-May-10 15:33:36

My mum pays £3.00 I pay £58 shock so only have it done every six weeks!

ClaireDeLoon Wed 12-May-10 15:36:45

£7.50 once a month, one bay window, one patio door, 5 other normal sized windows. And he does them in the old fashioned manner, with a ladder, not the pole system thing which leaves streaks I found.

I'm in Bedfordshire.

Mine climbs over the gate to do the back, I said he could let me know and I'd leave the gate open but he said he doesn't mind climbing over and it's solid enough he won't do any damage.

nickschick Wed 12-May-10 15:36:52

littledawley shockshockshock how many windows? do you have???

nickschick Wed 12-May-10 15:37:35

littledawley get ya mums window cleaner round to do yours wink.

champagnesupernova Wed 12-May-10 15:37:56

I'm not far from E anglia
I pay £15 for 1/2 a dozen downstairs windows
1/2 a dozen upstairs windows (with ladder)
and 2 fiddly doors with leaded glass

IsItMeOr Wed 12-May-10 15:40:04

I wish mine would clean the UPVC and ledges...[pouty emoticon]

BeenBeta Wed 12-May-10 16:00:42

Assuming window cleaning is a minimum wage job like all cleanng jobs are. The full 'cost' to the window cleaner of the delivering the service is about £15/hour if he/she had an employee working for their business rather than carryng out the work themselves.

Assuming he/she takes 15 minutes to do the job and 15 minutes to travel to your place that should cost £7.50.

In other words, he/she is charging double the actual cost of delivering the service if you ar epaying £15.

I only had a window cleaner once and I just thought it was money for old rope. Like a lot of these types of businesses they charge what they can get away with and they know women are less likely to negotiate. I would say £10 is more reasonable - especially in East Anglia.

bananabrain Wed 12-May-10 17:20:57

I did see in his notebook (nosey blush) that someone above me pays £8. Of course it might not be a neighbour with same size house and might be someone with far fewer windows .... but it did cross my mind that other people might haggle more and certainly might not agree to increases every couple of months or so when they mysteriously pass the business on to someone else...
It def took them less than 15 mins today (2 of them).

SparkyToo Sat 15-May-10 14:46:57

I do my own - but have been teased by neighbours for hanging out of the windows in my dressing gown (didn't know the neighbours when I once did wash them, but hadn't actually dressed first!!). Oops

TeaOneSugar Sat 15-May-10 20:53:00

I pay £6 for a large front bay, 5 average sizes windows and full sized french doors, every 6 weeks.

Ponders Sat 15-May-10 20:55:22

3-bed Victorian terrace with bay window at front, 6-pane French windows at back, 3 bathroom windows & 2 in kitchen - £5.50 per time (every 2 weeks for us)

(He never does glass above front door though - dunno why!)

ruddynorah Sat 15-May-10 21:00:10

we pay £5 and he comes every other week.

him and his mate do 4 normal windows, one big french door and the front door as well as all uPVC and ledges. they use ladders.

and they like to draw pictures on the french doors in their soap for dd if we're in smile

we are in west yorkshire.

I pay £5 once a month. We have 5 downstairs windows (quite big ones and one is a bay) and 5 upstairs ones. It takes him about 20 mins.

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