Cleaning House Gutters

spratty1000

I'm a tradesman (qualified roofer) and I run my own company and do a lot of gutter repairs cleaning etc. £20.00 is a ridiculously low quote? I know everyone wants a cheap job doing but come on!!!
This job needs doing once a year at most, sometime over the winter or just before. Most houses need it doing less than that if the job is done right!

Did you take in to account any of these factors when looking for qoutes:

1) The person has to get to the job i.e petrol costs
2) Insurance - public and personal yearly insurance - and business running costs? its illegal to work without it. Also WOULD you cover loss of earnings if the worker fell off the ladder or had an accident while fixing your property and was off work for 6 months????? NO
AND if the worker broke a window by accident would you expect it replacing ??? YES
Also it costs to advertise, which one needs to do in order to get the work in the first place.
3) Labour on the actual job??? , it could take a few hours to do if the gutters are bad. What would you work for per hour £5.00...£10.00.....£15.00......?
4)Purchase and maintaince of ladders and equipment to allow a tradesmen to do his job.
5) legally you are not allowed to climb a ladder above 8ft if it is not properly secured if working by themselves (health and safetly breech) someone should be securing the base of the ladder at all times?
5)disposing of the debris which is collected from the gutter?

After taking all this in to consideration, if you were doing the job for a living, would you clean someones gutter for £20, I highly doubt it!

It would work out at less than minimum wage after tax and cost!

CocoLoco_3

spratty1000 wrote: »

2) Insurance - public and personal yearly insurance - and business running costs? its illegal to work without it.

5) legally you are not allowed to climb a ladder above 8ft if it is not properly secured if working by themselves (health and safetly breech) someone should be securing the base of the ladder at all times?

Some very good issues raised, but being an interfering old bat , I feel I must point out some minor inaccuracies:

re 2) public liability insurance is not a legal requirement. If it is a self employed person who has no employees, he does not need Employers Liability Insurance ( but you're right, it is a legal requirement if there are employees ).

re 5) the Work at Height Regulations do not specify a numerical height value. It was a common misconception that there was a "2 metre" rule. The Work at Height Regulations describe a work place to be "at height" if a person could be injured if falling from it, which includes ground level.

Peter_Simon

Spratty,

The fact that window cleaners do offer to clean gutters tells you all you need to know. The way they work (focus on one area a day) means that a lot of the costs you describe are non applicable. If they can earn a fiver each for cleaning windows of 20 houses in a street, and another £20 for cleaning a few gutters then they've done quite well for a days work. They are in the enviable position of having to declare their earnings, and since most of the time they are paid in cash I doubt they declare everything: I certainly wouldn't.

The OPs quote seems a little more exspensive than most window cleaners would price at.

Therefore they can price at that level, because they can. And because they do, it makes a quote from a qualified professional like you seem extortionate.