Pricing is the thing most window cleaners get wrong when they start, usually by going too low to win the work and then being stuck with it for years. This is a practical guide to setting prices that are fair to the customer and worth your time.
There is no single right number. What you charge depends on where you work, how the house is built and how often you go back. But there are sensible ranges and a way of thinking about it that keeps you out of trouble.
What actually decides the price
Four things move a window cleaning price up or down.
Property size. A small terraced house has far fewer windows than a four-bed detached. More glass means more time, and time is what you are really selling.
Access. A house set back behind a hedge, with conservatory roofs, gates to unlock or parking two streets away, takes longer than a house you can pull straight up to. Awkward access is a real cost, price it in.
Frequency. A house cleaned every four weeks stays fairly clean, so each visit is quick. A one-off on a house that has not been touched in a year is a much bigger job. The first clean should cost more than the regular visits that follow.
Your area. Prices in parts of the South East sit higher than the same house in a smaller northern town. Look at what is normal locally rather than copying a number off the internet.
Typical UK price bands
These are rough guides for a regular maintenance clean, not a first clean, and they vary by region.
- Small terraced house: around 10 to 18 pounds
- Mid-size semi: around 15 to 25 pounds
- Larger detached: around 25 to 40 pounds, more with conservatories or lots of glass
A first clean, or a house that has been left a long time, often costs one and a half to two times the regular price, because you are doing far more work to get it right before the round takes over.
If your numbers come out well below these, check you are not pricing for the customer’s budget instead of your time.
Why frequency matters more than the headline price
A common mistake is chasing one-off cleans because the single price looks bigger. The money is in the round.
Say you clean a semi for 18 pounds every four weeks. That is one customer worth about 234 pounds a year, for a job that takes you fifteen minutes once it is part of a regular round. Fill a street with houses on the same cycle and you are earning a steady amount per hour with almost no travel between jobs. One-offs pay once and then you have to find the next one.
So when you quote, push for a regular slot rather than a single visit. Offer the regular price as the standard and treat one-offs as the exception, priced higher.
How to quote without underselling
Work out roughly how long the job will take, including getting set up and packed away, then price for the hourly rate you actually want to earn. Do not start from what they will say yes to.
A few habits that help:
- Quote the regular price first, with the frequency attached. “That is 20 pounds every four weeks.”
- Charge more for the first clean and say why. Customers understand that a neglected house is more work.
- Do not drop your price to win a single house. If you go low to get in, you are stuck at that number for years.
- Group your quoting by area. A tight round in a few postcodes is worth more to you than scattered jobs, so you can afford to be choosy.
Keep the admin from eating the profit
Getting the price right is half of it. The other half is making sure every clean turns into money in the bank. Missed visits, jobs you forgot to invoice and customers who never quite pay all chip away at what you earn.
This is where keeping your round in one place pays off. Window cleaning software schedules the recurring visits for you, puts the day’s jobs in driving order and turns a finished clean into an invoice the customer can pay by card. You spend less time at the kitchen table working out who owes what, and more of what you charge actually lands.
Price for your time, push for regular work, and make sure nothing slips through the admin. Do those three things and the round looks after you.