Bad weather
Weather is the constraint nobody prices for, and the difference between operators is entirely whether it was decided in advance.
Write the policy once, put it on the booking page and in the confirmation:
If the weather makes the job impossible, I will contact you the evening before and move it at no charge. Rescheduling for weather is always free.
Three things that does. It removes the awkward morning conversation. It makes the move the default rather than a cancellation. And it stops you being asked whether you still charge, which you were not going to.
Message the evening before, not the morning. By 7am the customer has arranged their day around you, and there is nowhere left in the week to move it to. The evening before, both of you still have options.
Move it, do not cancel it. Offer two specific alternatives. A cancellation loses the revenue; a reschedule keeps it, and most customers who cancel would have moved it if moving had been the obvious option. Cancellations and reschedules.
And keep work that does not care about the forecast. Interior detailing, anything under cover, and all residential cleaning. That is one of the practical arguments for serving both trades, because cleaning does not stop when it rains. Choosing what services to offer.
Planning the week around it
Book weather-dependent work early in the week where you can, so there is somewhere to move it to. A Friday exterior job that rains out has nowhere to go.
Keep indoor work as the thing you pull forward. An interior detail or a cleaning job scheduled for Thursday can usually move to Tuesday; the reverse is much harder.
Look at the forecast on Sunday, not on the day. One five-minute check per week gives you the whole picture, and it is enough to reorder the week before anyone has been told a time.
Leave one flexible slot. Not booked, not promised. It is where the moved job goes, and an operator with no slack loses the job rather than moving it.
What still earns
Interior detailing. Fully weather-independent under cover, and largely so even without.
Anything in a garage, carport or covered parking. Worth asking about at booking, because a customer with a garage often does not think to mention it. Water, power and access.
Residential cleaning. Unaffected.
Admin you never have time for. Quotes, invoicing, the customer list, the reviews you never asked for. A rained-off morning is the cheapest time you will ever have to do those. How to fill a quiet week.
Equipment, honestly
A canopy or gazebo helps meaningfully for interior work and light rain, is not a solution for exterior work in real weather, and becomes a liability in wind. Worth having, not worth relying on.
Rinseless and waterless products turn some jobs from impossible into possible and some into a smaller invoice, which beats nothing.
Proper wet-weather clothing is the least glamorous purchase on this list and the one that most changes whether a marginal day happens at all.
Nothing here makes a full exterior detail in heavy rain a good idea. Doing the job badly because you did not want to move it costs a customer and a review, and both are more expensive than the day.
Telling the customer
Short, decided, with options:
Hi [name], heavy rain forecast for tomorrow morning, so I would rather move your detail than do it badly. I have Thursday 9am or Saturday 8am free, both at the same price. Which suits?
Decided, not consultative. You are the one who knows whether the job can be done well, and asking "do you still want to go ahead?" hands a technical judgement to someone who cannot make it.
What Rigsheet does
Rescheduling moves the existing job rather than destroying and recreating it, so the deposit, the notes and the history stay attached. Recurring jobs and the customer list make "who could come forward into this slot" a filter rather than a scroll.
Scheduling, deposits, quotes, invoicing and recurring jobs are on every plan, including the $4 Starter tier. Automated customer texts start at Solo ($29), because SMS costs money per number and per message, and the evening-before message is one you can also send yourself from your own phone for nothing.
Seasonality and the slow months. · What each plan includes.
More in this section
About Rigsheet
Rigsheet is a job app from Baker Ventures LLC for one-to-three-person mobile service businesses: mobile auto detailers and residential cleaners first. Scheduling with drive-time gaps, quotes with vehicle and home-size pricing, deposits, "on my way" texts, before and after photos, invoices, and automated review requests. Plans start at $4 a month, with unlimited jobs, customers, quotes and invoices on every tier and no per-user fees.
It exists because the alternatives charge a solo operator team prices. A one-van business is not a small version of a ten-truck business, and pricing built around seats and add-ons makes that mistake expensive. The pricing calculators and operator guides on this site are free and need no account.
Questions and answers
What should a mobile detailer do when it rains?
Decide in advance rather than on the morning. A written weather policy, interior-only alternatives, and a rescheduling habit that moves the job rather than cancelling it turn a lost day into a moved one.
Should you charge if you cancel for weather?
No, and you should have said in advance what happens. A stated policy that you move weather cancellations free of charge is both fair and the thing that keeps the customer, and it costs you nothing that you were going to collect anyway.
How much notice should you give a customer?
As early as you can see it, which usually means the evening before rather than the morning. An evening message gives both of you a chance to move it to a slot that still works this week.
What work can you still do in bad weather?
Interior detailing, anything under cover, and all residential cleaning. That is one of the practical arguments for offering both trades where you can, because cleaning does not stop when it rains.
Does a canopy or gazebo actually help?
For interior work and light rain, meaningfully. It is not a solution for exterior work in real weather, and it introduces its own problems in wind.
How do you plan a week around a forecast?
Book weather-dependent work early in the week where you can, so there is somewhere to move it to, and keep indoor work as the thing you can pull forward.
Rigsheet. “Bad weather.” Baker Ventures LLC, September 7, 2026. https://rigsheet.bakerventuresstudio.com/guides/working-around-bad-weather/