I recently washed a house and she has been a nightmare customer. Claims I broke her siding, took good before pics so that became a non issue. Now she calls me yesterday and claims I ruined all of her screens and wants me to pay to have them replaced. Says I left a “white flaky” coating on them and the screens are disintegrating when she scrubs them. I’ve never had an issue before washing 100+ houses. Have any of you damaged screens with house wash mix? Running 1 gallon SH, 4 gallon h2o plus gain, downstreamed.
Im sure the screens were already done for when you got there
If they are old style with screens bleach will mess them up
Aluminum screen probably
Might be worth it to get rid of her. 
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Deny deny …refund money. Move on
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I refunded the house wash. Now she wants the screens replaced too. Pain in my backside.
Ask her how old they are. Prorate replacement maybe
Google says
How long should Window screens last?
10 to 15 years
A standard screen that is primarily in the shade, remains fairly dry, and is occasionally cleaned, should last around 10 to 15 years before it begins to break down and you need a window screens replacement. With more regular cleaning, you can add 5 to 10 years to your window screen’s lifespan.
Nope. Just give back the cost of the job and tell her to go to an ace hardware and get them re-screened using the money from the house wash. At 20 dollars a screen it should cover the cost. Also is it every single screen?
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I damaged a dry rotted screen not too long ago. Although it was already shot, it wasn’t like that when I showed up so I replaced it. Only one screen. I asked my dad to do it, he’s retired and pretty damn handy with most things. He told me how much Ace charges per screen. It got me thinking it may be a decent upsell. Screen replacement. Has anyone tried this?
I’d take the screen with me after the job, give them to pops to re screen and deliver and install. I’d charge an installation fee as well. Split the profit.
PS: tired of sitting in the truck. Water pressure sucks today. 30 minutes to fill then 1hr to work. Then repeat
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We got a guy here that drives around in a little old Ford transit and all he does is replace screens. I see him in a lot of the same neighborhoods I’m in. And he seems busy. I’ve seen him replacing porch screens, window screens, installing prebuilt framed screens on decks. Every time I see him, I think he should franchise that model. That’s about as niche as it gets.
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There’s a lot of screens everywhere and most people dont know how or want to. I could see that succeeding. Minimal equipment, starting capital, labor, insurance, etc. pretty low risk. Low franchisee fee would make it possible for your everyday middle class man/women to give owning a business a shot. Less money per license but more licensing sounds like $$$. You may be on to something
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Even better…charge 40% more then ACE. And then take them to ACE to get done.
Sounds like a headache though, screen replacing.
I feel you on the water, I just put two 6gpm in the box truck and my guys are having to shut down for 15-20 minutes every job.
Only in the country though, city water seems to keep up. Downtime adds up to an hour a day it seems though
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As a Window cleaner it is one of those things that annoy the hell out of me, in the past month I have had 3 customers call me up telling me I damaged their screens (one screen at each location), one claimed the screens had not long since they were replaced, In each occasion, I re screened the screen in front of the customer, I showed the customer that the screen was past its life simply by holding the screen and poking my finger through the screen. That is when I inform the customer that the screen material is too brittle.
People don’t look at something until they get it clean, they forget how long they have had these thing sitting there, all they remember is how much it was last time to replace the item and they don’t recall it was that long ago. when in reality it was likely longer ago than the life of the screen material.
Here about 80% of screen are just that nasty fiberglass screen material, its about $50 a roll it is weak as piss and lasts maybe 5 years if your lucky. I have now added in my conditions that screens that break during a standard cleaning methods with not be re screened for free. Also extended that to other outdoor fitting as earlier in the year i was doing a house wash and this external light cover disintegrated when it was cleaned, cheap pvc fitting that had rotted in the sun, less than 5 years old, just crap, the debris was so small it crumbed into dust when I tried to pick it up.
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Did you build the two 6s?
Running two 8s now and every now and then I’ll run into this. When I do it’s soo soo slow. 275 gallon goes quick. Would have been home drinking a beer 3hrs ago. Most of the time if it’s running low we will be done before it’s emptied and catch up on the next location. Not today. It’s been an all day affair.
That’s why I run a 5.5 and an 8. The 5.5 is slow, but it’s much faster than waiting a 1/2 hour at a time for the 8 to get fed. Of course, I work alone, so that may not work for you if you need 2 machines running all the time.
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I understand the predicament. It’s different in each area. It’s a trade off for sure but as long as it’s a rare occurrence the trade in efficiency/speed is well worth it in my situation. Especially for large flatwork jobs. Now if I could find and excuse to buy a mini mondo Id be like a kid on Christmas.
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That’s going to be my next purchase.
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I’ll have to get a large large flatwork job to justify it but I want one. Hopefully I’ll have one soon, that’ll mean I have the job. I’m pretty happy with my 24 & 20 but that thing looks sweet.
I try to do mostly flatwork. so it’ll be a good investment for me
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