Window cleaners,

Because it was a nice day today, I got on my ladder and cleaned all the windows in Plum towers, I've always done my own and use just soap, water and a squeegee to get the streaks out, I've noticed that the new generation of window cleaners have a long hose and a high reach brush which they pump water and just spray the window, I've learned that, Its a special water and pumped from the van and leaves no streaks, I dunno what they charge but, It must be considerable because, They need a van with a large tank and a pump with long hoses and many customers to provide enough income to justify the out goings, I think they are trying to reinvent a wheel and have made a sledge hammer to crack a nut,,

Grrrr! Not you, Tom.

Our window cleaner just turns up when he feels like it. Last time he came was on 11 March for which he still hasn't been paid. He has one of those long hose things these days to save climbing a ladder, and he's nowhere near your age.

I have 10 windows and he charges £6 which, on the face of it, doesn't sound like a lot but, when he comes to clean three and four times without knocking for payment, I have to keep accumulating the cash to pay him, which I resent. I've told him, if he wants paying he's to come on a Friday at 5 p.m. when I'm home from work, but does he listen?

If he only bothers to clean the windows of 40 houses in a day, that gives him £240 a day, which isn't a bad income, multiplied by - say - five days a week he makes £1200 a week. I imagine he'd manage more than 40 houses a day though and, once the van is bought, it won't cost much more except for the water and cleaning agent.

40 houses a day?
15 minutes an house - 4 houses an hour - 10 hours a day? Hmmmmmmmmm.! Maybe he could stick a brush up his arse and paint the skirting boards too, while he was at it?

£6 is a reasonable amount to pay but, getting 40 houses a day is a tall order, From my observations they ( there is always 2 men) and they'll get less than 10 houses in my area so, they need to move around a lot and that means, fuel for the van and then if they have to revisit to collect monies, It sounds dodgy

Good idea, Tonker!

Okay, so I'm no good at sums, but it takes him roughly 10 minutes to do my windows, so £6 for 10 minutes' work isn't bad for a squirt and a scrawp!

There is less grit and grime in the atmosphere now, which has made outdoor window cleaning largely redundant

I live in a bungalow with large picture windows and wash them myself no ladders needed I like Tom use a bucket of soapy water and a cloth/sponge. I normally give the windows a good soapy wash then rinse off with clean water then use a Karcher window vac to dry the glass. This is ok on large surfaces as long has you keep wiping the rubber blade otherwise it can leave streaks,it does not work on leaded glass it has to be a flat surface

My window cleaner text the night before to say he's coming,he charges £15 to do all windows,framework,sills and garage door,front and back door once a month

One of my earliest memories was watching a woman who lived across the road in a terraced house, and she would regularly clean her sash windows, and to clean the upstairs outside windows, she would put up the bottom sash window up, and then sit down on the inner window sill and then squirm backwards on her bottom, and once she was outside sat on the outside window sill, the bottom sash would be pulled down to her legs, and she would clean that one, and then repeat the process with the top sash window which could be pulled down, and as a three and four year old it was a very strange sight to behold, mainly because she was in possession of a rather large bottom, which I was fascinated with

Sash windows. You don't see many real ones nowadays, but my mate is currently making several for a grade 2 listed historic house in Haydock, The Grange.