Transcription
Okay, so first job of the day. Here we are. Uh, I'll explain to you how everything happens as we go through.
I haven't contacted this customer before I've arrived. When I establish a customer, a new customer, this is a conversation I have when I've done the quote and they accept the quote. Is I'll just explain how often I'll be coming around and if it's okay with them. It might vary a day or two from month to month, but I prefer to try and arrive and just get on with the job and they'll be expecting me around that time. So, that's usually fine with the customer.
I try and avoid sending them text messages beforehand if I can because that's kind of added work. Can be a bit more of a hassle to be have to do that. But some customers you need to do that sometimes to if there's a locked gate and you need to open the gate, things like that. This customer will be okay. Um, they expect to me about the same time each month and it's never a problem.
So, this is a traditional job. Even though I changed a lot of my round over to waterfed pole, I still do this the traditional method. They're wooden frame windows. Um, so you could potentially do them with waterfed pole as if you were using a softer bristle brush. But on some of the frames, you'll see, especially at the front here, the frames aren't in great condition. So, water can seep in when you're doing it with waterfed pole. And then after you've left the job, even though you've rinsed it thoroughly, water can still seep out of the frames, leaving spots and impurities on the glass. So, I still like to do some of these jobs traditional. It looks after the customer and gives them the best quality service as well. So, so that's what we're doing today.
So, getting the ladder on and off, first of all, um, it can be a little bit difficult on the higher van. I definitely recommend maybe a smaller van or even working from a car if you're on and off with the ladder all the time. Can be a little bit of a stretch. It's not too bad for me cuz I'm tall. So, it's good to have a a nice quick and easy method to get the ladder on and off. I use these Rhino clamps now, but for years and years I used just a bit of rope um tied on in a quick easy way to get it on and off. But um, yeah, these are much safer, much better, and uh nice and easy to use these Rhino clamps. It's well worth keeping them oiled a little bit as well to make it nice and easy. Um, but yeah, these are great.
So, nice and methodical. We're going to work from one end of the property all the way down around the back. Um, nice and efficient. So, I've already got my bucket of warm water here. First job of the day. Okay. So, I've got my bucket on the belt all ready to go. That goes on. Couple of handy yellow seal cloths go in the pouch. Today I've got an Ang microfiber sleeve. These are really cool with the little scrub patches on the end as well. So that'll be my detailing cloth around the edges. Now in the water first thing in the morning, I've got my GG4, but I've got it dispensed into another bottle so I can just add it into the water here. So, I've got about half a bucket. We'll just add a bit of GG4 like that. And then make sure that that's mixed into my applicator sleeve nicely. And that's washed through. And then a bit of fairy liquid goes on there. Give it a shake. Shake the excess off. That's in there. And I've got my 16 in and my 12 in ready to go.
Owen's with me today as well. Now, when there's two of us working, it's a good idea to have the person upstairs doing the ups slightly ahead of the person downstairs so that if the person above does drop any water down, um, they don't want to clean the window underneath first and then drop water from above. So, I try and stay slightly ahead of Owen working underneath. Uh, so that doesn't happen. Um, but we'll show you how we get on cleaning this job here. So, when we're cleaning, we always do the tops first then comes afterwards. Okay, so there's a few awkward windows and things on this job. So, we'll just show you how we get to some of these awkward ones as well.
I have to be really careful of the tiles. You obviously don't want to damage the tiles there. In some sometimes you can put the ladder to the side of the porch and reach to the window in the middle, then do the ladder on the other side to reach the other side of the window. In this case, obviously the bushes are there, so I've got no choice really. Um, so I've just put them ladder against the tiles. I'll step on with one foot onto the roof so I can then reach the window and clean it that way. Obviously, be really careful when you're doing anything like this, stepping off the ladder. If you're not sure, it's well worth getting someone to foot the ladder. So, because I've got Owen here with me, I'll get him to foot the ladder, make sure it's nice and safe and secure while I clean the window. Heat. Heat.
Another small thing I like to do is think carefully about where I'm leaving the bucket. So here I'm just going to leave it by the back gate. So we'll wet up our applicator here. Do the front of the house back there. Come round, wet my applicator again, and then head round the back. So, I make sure that uh tell the person that I'm working with we have these little methods in place. That way, I don't have to move the bucket too often. You're not searching around for the bucket. And then we can work really efficiently and easily together like that. So, if I'm doing maybe a couple of houses together, I might leave it between the houses, wherever the back gate is. I just think a little bit about that. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up
You need to be really careful about leaning the ladder against guttering. You don't want to damage the guttering. So, just be a little bit cautious about that. And of course, stepping off the ladder onto the slate roof as well, take great care. You don't want to break any slates can be particularly delicate. Um, so I'm not really putting a lot of weight on the roof, but just really that's there to balance myself. So, always really cautious about things like that. And when you're leaning the ladder against anything like that, halfway up the ladder or 2/3 of the way up the ladder, you want to be careful about how you distribute your weight. You shouldn't lean above the point that the ladder is is resting um because that can cause a counterbalance issue. But you see in that position there, I've actually got the ladder butted against the wall, making it nice and secure. So, always be really careful with the ladder. And that's a good reason for using waterfed pole actually is that waterfed pole eliminates those risks altogether.
So, this job has quite a few different types of windows. Here we've got the little Georgian ones. Um, what you could do is damp them with a bit of soap. I could take the microfiber from my belt and give them a polish like that. This how I'd normally do it all the way across. Now, these are quite dirty cuz there's uh trees here. So, what I'm actually going to do like this, just use the same applicator. And in my pouch here in the pocket, my trusty little squeegee like this and just watch the runoff from the one above. This is where getting your soap mixture just right can really make the difference so the soap doesn't run down too much. As I get to the bottom, I'm trying to just sweep that off there. Each time you wipe, change to a different spot on the cloth. See, it's getting quite damp now. I'm doing this one-handed. Then once we get to the bottom, some cobwebs around the door handle. You could do all the frames first if it's maybe a first clean. Not a bad idea to go around all the frames first. But what I'm doing is kind of eliminating a step by doing it at the end. I'm being really careful about how I use the cloth, making sure I don't get it on the glass that I've just cleaned. But, um, yeah, if you're doing a first clean and you're charging a bit more for the first clean, then, uh, it's well worth going around the frame first. It's just a bit of a maintenance clean up. Then uh it eliminates the step, helps you get through the work a bit more quickly throughout the day. All these little things add up, help you to work more quickly. Never.
>> I always leave the clamps in my footwell. So, if I get distracted whilst I'm putting the ladder on, I'm never going to forget to tie them on because they're always in my footwell. So, they're always in the way. So, I put these on. When you put them on, you just need to make sure I just hold it underneath. Make sure that's tight. Press down on it as I pull the lever. That makes sure it's nice and tight as it goes on there. Go. That's it. Uh my squeegee and applicator go back in the bucket. Tip out any excess water. And there my belt simply stores back away in there. Sometimes I just keep my belt on. Saves a bit of time and uh drive to the next job. Um I just need to leave the invoice for the customer. The customer knows the bank details. They just make a direct payment each time. So I leave that with them. And there we go. That's it.
So it's quite a good job to show you the variety of different things you're likely to come across on a on a typical traditional job. Um, sometimes I still do traditional in the village places. So, it's a good skill to have also for doing inside cleans comes in really useful. So, hope that helps.