New construction sucks

Just finished a 4 day project doing a huge new construction brick apartment complex.

Never again unless I can charge double my usual rate.

From waiting on other trades to get out of the way (and somehow pissing them off in the process), to sharing a lift was guaranteed access to, to having the construction manager watch me and my employee like a hawk, to being asked to clean a billion things that weren’t part of the original scope of work and having to explain that no I’m not also a window cleaner, and no I won’t/can’t clean the mortar splatter and smear off of every door and window because that wasn’t included in the original estimate.

Just don’t do it y’all.

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Never ever do new construction

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Well, I’m happy I dodged that bullet. Was asked to quote one about a month ago and ended up deciding not to

I’ve done some construction clean up projects from the general clean up side (interiors/ windows/ etc…) and its the biggest PITA. Last big project we did was last summer and I swore to myself that I’d never do it again, no matter how good the money was. Do yourself a favor and stay far, far away.

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Ever ever ever

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Done glass mostly myself, more than a few years, thinking of adding pressure washing/soft house washing to my business I’m just starting. While I might do a ccu window job, the price would be about 3 times my normal rate for basic residential. So much more to it and more liability. Plus you often don’t get paid right away. Not sure I’d be interested in doing ccu other than glass at this point myself. If I did, I reckon I’d charge about the same - 3x base. Before the landscaping is nice, but probably end up working in mud. I would suggest that the glass is done immediately after any exterior cleaning is done with a pressure washer - especially if chemicals were used. If the windows are damaged during the process that’d be a potential liability.

One of the reasons I’m thinking of adding whole house washing. Many times I’ve done the windows after a power washing job and had to work at getting the residue of what was used to clean the house off the glass. More of a restoration than a standard clean. Should have been done the day of the exterior clean or shortly thereafter. If it’s new construction then the glass is brand new as well. GC expects the glass to be nearly perfect. So if you do an exterior wash, the glass should be done shortly thereafter. If you don’t do glass it should be coordinated with the window cleaner so the windows don’t have runoff on them for any length of time. Doesn’t take long. Spelling that out could help reduce liability as far as the glass is concerned if you do ccu. But then again, I’m more of a glass guy, on here learning more about pressure washing. Both industries are much more technical than most really understand imho.

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Did window CCU years ago, never again.

One of the worst was a new build Kohls, they have these mirror covered center pillars, every one had tons of silicone residue. :grimacing:

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