How to price window cleaning jobs

The best price for a window cleaning job is the one that covers the time it takes, what you pay your crew, your overhead and a profit, and still looks fair to the customer. You get there by choosing a pricing method, estimating the time honestly, and testing the result against a few real jobs. This guide walks through four common methods, the factors that move the number, and a worked example you can copy with your own figures.

Every dollar figure in this guide is an example to show the arithmetic. Replace them with your own costs and market rates. Nothing here is a statistic about what window cleaners charge.

The four common ways to price window cleaning

1. Per pane

You count the panes, multiply by a rate, and adjust for access and condition. It is the most common method for homes because customers can understand and compare it, and because pane count is easy to read from the curb or from a photo.

• Good for: residential jobs, repeat customers, door-to-door quotes.
• Watch for: panes that are not equal. A small fixed pane and a large French-pane sash are not the same work, so many owners set a higher rate for divided panes.

2. Per window, by type

Instead of counting panes, you price each window by its type: small, standard, large, picture window, French, storm window, skylight. It is quicker to quote on site and avoids arguments about what counts as a pane.

• Good for: quick quotes on repeat routes where you already know the house.
• Watch for: building a price list with too many types. Five or six is plenty.

3. By time

You estimate the labor hours, multiply by the revenue you need per labor hour, and add travel and setup. It is the most honest method, and it is how you sanity-check every other method.

• Good for: unusual jobs, restoration and first-time cleans, commercial buildings.
• Watch for: customers who hear an hourly rate as open-ended. Quote a fixed price built from your time estimate.

4. Flat price by house

You set a price by house size and number of stories, for example a small one-story, a medium two-story, a large two-story. It is the simplest to sell, especially door to door.

• Good for: neighborhood canvassing where speed matters.
• Watch for: houses that look alike but have very different window counts. Use flat prices as bands, and adjust up when the window count is clearly above the band.

Most owners end up combining them: a per-pane or per-window price to quote, a time estimate behind it to check profitability, and a minimum charge underneath.

The factors that change the number

Whatever method you choose, the same factors move the price up or down:

• Pane count and pane type. More panes and divided panes mean more time.
• Stories and access. Upper floors need ladders, extension poles or a water-fed pole, which changes speed and sometimes equipment cost. A water-fed pole is a telescopic pole that feeds purified water through a brush so windows can be cleaned from the ground.
• Inside, outside or both. Interior cleaning adds time and requires going into the home.
• Screens, tracks and sills. Cleaning screens and tracks is extra work. Decide whether it is included or an add-on.
• Condition. Construction dust, hard-water staining and neglected glass take longer than a routine clean.
• Route density. A job on the same street as three others is cheaper to do than one across town. Price it that way if it helps you win the route.
• Frequency. A customer who books quarterly is worth more than a one-off, which is a reason to offer a recurring rate.

A worked example: turn time into a price

This is the part most owners skip, and it is the part that keeps you from underpricing. The example uses made-up numbers. Substitute yours.

Step 1: decide what a labor hour must earn. Suppose each technician hour has to bring in $60 of revenue for the business to cover the technician's pay, your overhead, tools and a profit. That figure is yours to calculate from your real costs.

Step 2: estimate the time. Suppose a house has 30 panes and you estimate 2 minutes a pane for the exterior plus 20 minutes of setup, travel and finishing:

• 30 panes at 2 minutes = 60 minutes
• Setup, travel and finishing = 20 minutes
• Total = 80 minutes, or about 1.33 hours

Step 3: price it. 1.33 hours at $60 an hour is about $80. That is about $2.67 a pane.

Step 4: check against a minimum. If your minimum charge is $100, this job is $100, not $80. The drive and setup cost the same for small jobs, which is why a minimum exists.

Step 5: sanity check the commission. If a technician earns 30 percent of the job and a rep earns 20 percent, then on a $100 job you keep $50 before overhead. If that number does not work, the price or the percentages have to change. Do this math before you publish a price, not after.

A table helps when you are building your price sheet:

First-time clean versus recurring

A first clean usually takes longer than a clean that follows a regular schedule, because the glass is dirtier. There are two honest ways to handle it:

• Charge a first-clean price and a lower recurring price. Explain that the first visit resets the windows and later visits maintain them.
• Charge one price and adjust the schedule. Some owners give a flat annual price for a set number of visits and let the first visit take longer.

Either works. What does not work is quoting the recurring price for a first visit that takes twice as long and absorbing the loss. Decide deliberately and state it on the quote. More on this in our guide to recurring service plans for window cleaners.

Add-ons and bundles

• Screens and tracks: price as an add-on or build into the base if you always do them.
• Gutters, soft washing, solar panels: cross-sell to the customer you are already visiting. A bundle saves you a trip, so it can carry a modest discount while still beating two separate visits on profit.
• Seasonal jobs: fall and spring are busy for windows; price for the demand you expect rather than discounting in your busiest weeks.

Quote the same way every time

Consistency matters more than perfection. Pick a method, write down the rates, and train everyone who quotes, including reps on the doors, to use the same sheet. When quotes vary by who is at the door, you lose money on the low ones and jobs on the high ones.

If reps quote in the field, give them the price sheet on their phone and decide how much room they have to adjust. In KrewDash, the job form can suggest estimated hours and a price from your own completed jobs of the same type, which gets more accurate as your history grows, and reps can write their own quote on a service plan. See recurring service plans and commissions for how quotes and crew pay connect.

Test your prices on real jobs

Before you commit to a sheet, time five real jobs. Track the minutes per pane, the drive, the setup and the finishing. Compare the real time against your estimate, then adjust the per-pane rate or the minimum. A price that is right on paper and wrong in the field is just a guess.

Keep reading

Once your prices work, the next questions are how to sell repeat work (recurring service plans) and how to pay the people who do and sell the jobs (paying subcontractors). If you sell door to door, see door-to-door selling for window cleaners.