Part
01
of one
Part
01
What is the market size for Commercial Exterior Window Cleaning in the USA. Building type, please differentiate between under 100 ft and over 100 ft. * Excluding private homes (ground +1 and/or 2).
Below, I've estimated the market size for high-rise window cleaning in three ways, focusing on buildings over 100 feet. Further information beyond what the original response contained was extremely hard to come by, so these estimates should be considered very rough. I've estimated based on the market size found in the previous response, on the number of buildings over 100 meters in the US, and on window cleaning industry guidelines for project bidding. Read on for my rundown of these three market size estimates.
ESTIMATE #1
The overall US cleaning industry was worth $51 billion in 2015. If the US follows European trends, where window cleaning accounts for an estimated 10% of the total cleaning market, the US window cleaning industry is worth roughly $5.1 billion annually. According to the US Energy Information Administration, there were 5,558,000 commercial buildings in the US as of 2012. Buildings 10 floors and taller (which should, generally, stand over 100 feet tall) account for 13,000 of those buildings, or 0.2% of the total.
With an estimated $5.1 billion market size, that means that buildings over 100 feet account for around $10.2 million annually (.002 x 5,100,000,000), while buildings under 100 feet account for approximately $5.09 billion (.998 x 5,100,000,000). In reality however, taller buildings likely have a slightly larger share of the market, as they tend to be more expensive proportionally than smaller buildings due to several factors.
ESTIMATE #2
According to the skyscraper source you provided, there are 4,872 buildings over 100 meters in the US. One anecdotal source suggests that high-rise buildings can cost "$100,000 to clean two times a year" (this is the generally-recommended number of annual cleanings for commercial office buildings).
Based on these numbers, we can estimate a market size of $487.2 million for window cleaning of high-rise buildings over 100 meters.
ESTIMATE #3
According to some sources, cleaning estimates for taller buildings are often measured not by window but by "drop" -- the number of times the window cleaner will have to go from the roof to the bottom of the building (or as low as possible due to architectural details). A standard industry pricing guideline for bids is to get, on average, $50 to $75 per man-hour of work. One example, the Hearst Tower in New York City, takes a 3-man crew a month of work to clean. Estimating based on a 40-hour work week, the Hearst Tower costs between $24,000 (160 hours x 3 men x $50/man-hour) and $36,000 ($75/man-hour) to clean once -- if it's cleaned twice a year, the tower has an annual window cleaning cost between $48,000 and $72,000.
If these costs are representative of the average for buildings in the US over 100 feet and given 13,000 buildings over 100 feet, we can estimate a market size for high-rise window cleaning between $624,000,000 and $936,000,000.
CONCLUSION
Hard figures are extremely hard to come by, but I was able to find some information in addition to that outlined in the original response. I've estimated a market size for window cleaning in the US, focused on buildings over 100 feet tall, in three ways: based on market sizing estimates from Europe ($5.1 billion total, of which buildings over 100 feet account for $10.2 million), by number of buildings over 100 meters in the US times anecdotal average cost ($478.2 million for these buildings only), and by extrapolating from industry estimates and a representative example (between $624 million and $936 million for buildings over 100 feet).
These estimates are all extremely rough but could help paint a fuller picture of the market for window cleaning in commercial high-rises.