The bill came to CHF 112. Is this normal or have I been 'Switzerlanded'?
I nearly asked him to do the others. Thank goodness I didn't.
I had one guy clean one bay style window situated on the second storey (he needed a long ladder).
That's shocking but it probably includes transport time. I'd like to think that subsequent windows done at the same time would be cheaper.
I spent less than CHF112 on a ladder to do ours and to be honest, they're finished in less time than it takes to find someone, call them, pay the invoice etc etc.
I was wondering how to clean the ouside of our third storey bay window, I think I'll just keep wondering.
How many windows in the Bay? Cleaned inside and out?
Either way seems pretty reasonable to me. We wouldnt have done it for less.
Makes me laught sometimes as people are prepared to pay a guy 120 CHF to service a dishwasher. They tend to run the rinse programme and if that runs OK then thats it! Not bad for 15 minutes work eh.
Ah, we used to do that. Last one in pays for the next round.
Maybe 112 was a little excessive but they would have to charge travel time. Ask your hauswart to clean them next time. I am sure he would clean them for a lot less.
Laughing at the cost .. Glad all of our windows open sufficiently to be cleaned from inside !!
My flat in the scotlandshire, first floor, 9 windows, pretty large - over 2m x 1m each. £5 per clean . I used to give the guy £50 and not see him until next year sometimes.
sorry if this comes across the wrong way but why compare window cleaning costs in scotland with zürich?
You did really well thats a bargain. Consider he had to travel, setup, clean etc and then you only did a single window. Would have cost not much more to do more windows as the charge sounds like a base rate for callout and basic job
They're made of glass, cleaned by a guy up a ladder who arrived in a little van ?
What make of van was it? And were the van windows clean
Daft to compare UK with Switzerland re window cleaning. Windows in UK open out outwards so can't be cleaned from inside. So most people have a regular window cleaner, and it is a regular job with official rounds (it's quite a guarded business actually, and there are window cleaning wars from time to time). Here, windows open inwards, so the great majority of people clean their own - and having a window cleaner (well there is no such thing here anyway) is pretty unsual-so it is reflected in the price.
Now that is what you need, great idea:
In our last house in the UK we had Kritter (metal) windows with leaded lights - oh such fun to clean! (and I had to block the droughts with white tack sausages from November to end of March to stop the wind blowing in. They did look lovely though [wink]
Teeny correction: windows in England And Wales open outwards. It has been a legal requirement in Scotland for many years that any windows fitted must be capable of flipping around 180 degrees so enabling cleaning of the outside from the inside ... or at least that was what we were told in 1991 when we bought our house in Scotland and were amazed by the very clever windows! Mind you, given the size of some windows in Swiss houses, not so sure how easily they would pivot.
A while back I used someone called George Formby, who was very cheap, but when he sadly died, a guy called Robin Askwith took over, but he wasn't as reliable and always seemed to have his mind on other things.
You're generalising.
Our first floor ones are 2m x 1.5m and they don't open. The smaller ones do though.
Lots of newer places are like this.
Wouldn't work on Minergie-standard triple-glazed windows.
We live in ground floor so there's no ladder needed or any dangerous act for cleaning window. I asked my cleaning lady to do the cleaning on a separate day (believing that it will take longer time)....
Her hourly rate is CHF25/hour.
She started with the first window (1.5Mx1.8M) -- clean the glass front & back, and the blind behind and it took 45 mins and use up 1/2 roll of kitchen towel to get a shiny and spotless clean quality! I explained to her that it doesn't have to be spotless clean. Simply remove the dust and earth sticked on blind and general clean on window with cloth is OK. With an expectation of "learning curve" of her, she spent another 40 mins in the next window with "average cleaning quality".
all of our windows have a total of around 10 times of this size. Thus, I decided to ask her to stop.
You did the right things to moniter her progress and stop her. I felt that I shouldn't ask my cleaning company to do my windows when they couldn't tell me on the spot how many hours it would take. I have 3 floors of windows, floor to cieling at the front and back on 2 of the levels.
Cleaning windows isn't difficult - you need the right squeegee and water with dishwashing liquid and a little white vinigar for the water marks. My BIL has a window cleaning business and fed up with not being able to get them clean, I asked home for some tips. He said you need to start with a good-quality squeegee with flexible rubber (less streaks), the widest you can find.
1. wash window and frame with a sponge and let it dry slightly
2. squeegee the window and wipe the squeegee with a damp cloth after each wipe and wipe at an angle so the water runs down at the side. Wipe the drips and frame as you go along. You can also use a Kärcher window cleaner to speed this stage up but you still need to do stage 3
3. when almost dry, polish the streaky bits on the window with a microfaser cloth and window cleaner spray *
It takes me 20 mins for 3 big windows. I use a special cleaning spray and power wash my blinds before I start, doing the house top to bottom.
* This step is aparenly elimated with a good quality squeegee - wish I had one!
I find it even easier.
Wash windows with soapy water. BEFORE it dries, rub the glass dry with a micro-thingy or glass-cleaning cloth. Done.