Rained off? How to move a window cleaning round

Can you clean windows in the rain?

With a water-fed pole, many window cleaners do, at least in light rain. With ladders and a squeegee, fewer are keen. Heavy rain and wind change things for everyone.

• Water-fed pole. The glass is rinsed with filtered water and left to dry. One cleaner explains to customers that "as it's a 'wet system' (in that we don't leave the windows dry but allow them to air dry) it makes very little if any difference to the end result when dry" (forum, 2019). Trade supplier Window Cleaning Warehouse says "Rain water is almost pure and so will not do any harm" (FAQs for new window cleaners).
• Traditional. "I don't like working when it's raining, although I know it can be done," says a cleaner who doesn't use a pole (forum, 2015). He adds that rain "brings the muck off the surrounding walls down with it" (same thread).
• Heavy rain splashes dirt up from the ground: doors end up "covered in black specs for like the first 12-18 inches up" (forum, 2019).
• Wind may matter more than rain: "Wind is the worst thing not rain" (forum, 2018).

Customers matter too. Some don't want you there in the rain. Window Cleaning Warehouse says that if you "briefly explain why cleaning in the rain is not a problem, and always turn up on time in the rain or shine, customers will often understand and actually prefer the regularity" (same page).

Ladders in the wet

HSE says anyone planning work at height must "take account of weather conditions that could compromise worker safety" (HSE: Working at height, a brief guide). Its ladder guidance says the ground under a ladder must be clean and solid "so the feet can grip" (HSE: Where ladders should be used).

If the rain or wind makes the ladder feel unsafe, come down. Some cleaners who use ladders switch to a pole from the ground when it's wet: "If it is quite bad i will pole from the ground where possible instead of taking the ladders off the roof" (forum, 2015).

Deciding on the day

• Decide early. "I think sitting around waiting to go out is a waste of a day," says one cleaner. If it's heavy and forecast all day, he takes the day off and does something else (forum, 2017).
• Keep a job for wet days. "Always good to have a floating job booked in" (same cleaner). When wind blows the rain onto the glass, another does "gutters/conservatory roofs/solar panels or internal windows instead" (forum, 2018).
• Or canvass. A wet afternoon can be a leaflet round. See our canvassing guide.

Telling customers

• Say it when you take them on. One cleaner tells customers "when I introduce myself that I clean in light rain but not heavy rain" (forum, 2019). Another says they'll "clean in all but the most extreme weather" (forum, 2018).
• Some offer a rain guarantee: if the customer isn't happy once the rain has dried, they go back and do the windows again for free (forum, 2015). One cleaner who offers this says "In ten years of wfp I can honestly say that to date I've had no one call me back following a clean in the rain" (forum, 2018).
• If you're moving someone, tell them the new day from your own phone. Keep it short:

For exampleHi Sue, it's Dan your window cleaner. Rained off today, so I'll be with you on Thursday instead. Nothing you need to do.

Move the day or the week?

There are two ways to catch up after a wet day.

• Move the day. Fit the missed houses into the rest of the week, or a Saturday. Everyone else stays on their usual date, but your other days get longer. One cleaner: "I prefer to get all my scheduled work for the week done that week even if it means going out for 1-2 hours towards the end of a day at times or just an hour or so on a saturday" (forum, 2017).
• Move the week. Push everything on by a week. Check the week you're moving into first: if it already has bookings, you'll need to make room or move those too. Tell the customers affected their new date. On a 4-weekly round, a moved customer has a 5-week gap.

Some never move the week: "if I ain't got much on I move some around the day to stay a little bit dry but never around the week" (forum, 2018). A simple rule: lose a day, move the day. Lose most of a week, move the week.

Don't lose the houses you missed

When you move parts of a round around, the danger is a house that gets missed and isn't cleaned until the customer rings to ask where you are.

• Keep every missed house on one list until it's done, not on a scrap of paper.
• At the end of each week, look at that list first and book in whoever has waited longest.
• Put money aside in the dry months: "just make sure you put money up over the good months to cover for bad weather" (forum, 2013).