I walk in a residential neighborhood where someone is getting their windows or gutters cleaned or something else pressure washed. I never realized until I started walking a lot how many service jobs are related to cleaning. I don’t really think it is because most of us keep things so dirty; it’s just because that is the one job that most of us don’t want to do. I don’t really mind cleaning once I get started. There is a lot of satisfaction to be gained from seeing the results of cleaning. I like jobs where you can actually see the progress. It’s just the getting started that is difficult. I don’t think I have ever had my windows cleaned by someone else in any place I have lived. But the more I think about it, the more attractive that prospect sounds. Maybe I’ll call the number on the van in this photo and ask Nothing But Clean to wash my windows. In the meantime, let’s learn more about window cleaners.
According to Wikipedia, window cleaning, or window washing is the exterior cleaning of architectural glass used for structural, lighting or decorative purposes. It can be done manually, using a variety of tools for cleaning and access. Technology is also employed and increasingly, automation.
Commercial work is contracted variously from in-person transactions for cash or barter to formal tender processes. Regulations, licensing, technique, equipment and compensation vary nationally and regionally.
Access
Where glass is found are window cleaners, and methods of access and equipment related to both access and cleaning vary nationally and regionally. If a window is not easily accessible using one type of equipment, then it is advisable to combine different tools to be able to clean it properly.
- Ladders
- Supported scaffolding — A temporary platform workers can stand on that rests on a surface below, rather than hanging from above like suspended scaffolding.
- Suspended platform or cradle — Unlike supported scaffolding, it is not fixed to a lower surface or the ground, but rather is suspended by wire rope from above. It raises and lower the worker either by hand or with a motor. It is also known as a swing stage.
- Rope — Using abseiling equipment consisting of a safety harness and rope connections to lower individual window cleaners to positions where they are enabled to clean.
- Aerial work platforms are elevated platforms that workers can stand on, such as a scissor lift or cherry picker. These include:
o Boatswain's chair or bosun's chair — A single-person seat designed for controlled descent of rope. Often referred to as "rope descent systems," these are typically anchored to a roof structure, counterweight configuration or connecting points designed for the purpose. These are always temporarily installed for the purpose of access. However, their anchor points can be either temporary or permanent.
o Suspended platform — An access platform for one or more workers with manual or motor driven devices for raising and lowering via rope. Platforms may be fitted to high rise buildings or skyscrapers or assembled from components to suit architecture and nature of work being performed. These can be either temporary or permanent. Both having their own unique governing codes and regulations. Permanent suspended platforms are called building maintenance units or in Europe, gondolas.
- Direct access to a window obtained by egress from that window. This method is still used at the Empire State Building in
High rise window cleaning
Windows that needed cleaning became higher as buildings became higher. A trade in window cleaning developed, for instance, in New York City in the late 19th century when early skyscrapers were being built. The height increased the risk to the washers. At first, washers cleaned skyscraper windows by standing on the window ledge and holding onto the frame. Later, leather safety belts attached to anchor bolts were introduced and then scaffolds. For example, the Otis Elevator Company built an electrically operated scaffold for use at Lever House.
Three window cleaners were working at the World Trade Center at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. Jan Demczur, working in the North Tower, survived and helped save five other people who had been trapped in an elevator with him. Roko Camaj and Fabian Soto, working in the South Tower, were killed.
The photo is of Roko Camaj outside the observation deck on the 107th floor cleaning the only windows on the World Trade Center that still required hands. All the others were done by a machine.
According to Jeff Giles May 16, 2019 article “A Look at Window Washers: ‘You Only Get to Fall Once’” in the New York Times, Mr. Camaj and his wife, Katrina, immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia in 1969. Ms. Camaj was terrified of heights, so when Mr. Camaj got a job cleaning the glass on the uppermost reaches of the World Trade Center in the mid-1970s, he didn’t tell her the part about how he was cleaning it from the outside.
On 9/11, Mr. Camaj was at the South Tower when the plane struck the building beneath him. He called Ms. Camaj at 9:14 a.m., urging her not to panic. He died when the tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. Something that Mr. Camaj had said in a children’s book about his job served as his last words: “It’s just me and the sky. I don’t bother anybody, and nobody bothers me.”
Tools
Chamois and scrim
According to Wikipedia, chamois leather is used to loosen and remove dirt, followed by a buffing with scrim or cheesecloth, lightweight gauzy materials. Chamois leather is a type of porous leather, traditionally the skin of the chamois, a type of European mountain goat, but today made almost exclusively from the flesh split of a sheepskin.
Water and squeegee
Generally, chemicals are added to water, and a device such as a brush or cloth-covered handle is dipped into the resulting solution and used to scrub glass. A squeegee is then used to sluice the dirt and water mixture from the glass. Chemicals added to the solution range from dish soap and glass cleaner to trisodium phosphate and etching salt. In sub-freezing temperatures, anti-freezing chemicals are added to the solution to prevent it from crystallizing on the pane before it is sluiced off.
The earliest written references to squeegees date from the mid-19th century and concern deck-cleaning tools, some with leather rather than rubber blades. The name "squeegee" may come from the word "squeegee," meaning press or squeeze, which was first recorded in 1783. The closely related "squeedging" was reportedly first used in 1782 in the Covent Garden Theatre during the performing of the comedy “Which is the Man?” by Hannah Cowley.
Squeegees were in use for cleaning windows by 1918 when an American book on Navy jargon explained that a deck-cleaning tool called a squeegee was "used in civil life to clean windows." This is the earliest written reference to a window cleaning squeegee given by the Oxford English Dictionary.
With the development of the skyscraper in the 20th century, a more efficient tool for the cleaning of window exteriors was needed. Professional window washers began using the Chicago squeegee, a bulky tool with two heavy pink rubber blades. Changing the blades required the loosening of twelve separate screws. The modern single-blade window cleaning squeegee was patented by Ettore Steccone in 1936; who dubbed it the "New Deal." It was made of lightweight brass with a very flexible and sharp rubber blade. Steccone began a manufacturing process and sold the product in his garage. The Ettore Products Co. is still the leader in the squeegee market today. Squeegee kits can include a telescoping pole to extend the washer's reach.
The "swivel method," or "fan method" as it is referred to by professionals, uses a series of strokes combined with turns that hold the water away from the leading edge of the squeegee; when the turn is completed in the opposing direction, there is no water and no dirt left isolated. Straight strokes, either horizontally or vertically, are normally much more efficient than “fanning” when using fixed handle squeegees; however, this method leads to more streaks and missed spots. If a few spots are missed, a chamois leather cloth works better for touch up than a towel of cloth or paper.
In 1992 Willie Erken invented the pivoting handle squeegee.
Using a squeegee for window cleaning may sometimes produce run lines. These are caused by cleaning fluid being pushed up into the top edge of the window, or by fluid flowing from under the rubber blade into the dry area of the glass. The latter of these cases may be prevented by holding the squeegee at a slight angle relative to the direction in which it is being moved, directing fluid flow towards the wet area of the glass.
Another method used by window cleaners is to tap the blade on an already wet area of the glass to remove any excess water on the rubber blade. Alternatively the rubber blade can be dried with a towel, although this method is slower and not practical when using extension poles.
According to Guinness World Records, the world's fastest window cleaner is Terry Burrows of South Ockendon, Essex, England, who cleaned three standard 45 inches × 45 inches office windows set in a frame in 9.24 seconds at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in March 2005. He used a 11.75-inch squeegee and 2.37 gallons of water.
Water-fed poles
Any of a variety of types of telescopic poles, fitted at the upper end with a brush and water jets, fed either from vehicle-borne tanks of deionized water or by on-site production of deionized water using a domestic or commercial water outlet. The water is filtered by either a two-stage or three-stage filtration process, involving a carbon filter, and two de-ionization filters, or a carbon filter, a reverse osmosis membrane filter and a de-ionization resin filter. The filtered water should contain a TDS or total dissolved solids of 0 parts per million when being used on windows. The reason for this is that if using above zero ppm water; reach and wash/waterfed pole window cleaners cannot claim to be purified water window cleaners and subsequently, a reading above 0 ppm could lead to spotting on the glass. The amount of spotting would depend entirely on what mineral composition is the water. The brush is used to agitate the debris off the window, while spraying water, and then the brush is lifted a few inches from the glass to rinse the glass with the pure water jets. Fan jets are used for hydrophobic glass and "pencil" jets are used for hydrophilic glass. The de-ionized water is lacking in ions, so it will pull solids off the glass and dissolve the solids into the water, aiding in the cleaning process. Because there are no solids dissolved in the water, the windows dry clear without water spots. Water-fed poles vary in length. The longest poles are about 70 feet and can reach up to six stories. Water-fed cleaning is also referred to as pure water cleaning. It is common in the UK and becoming common in the U.S.
Hazards
Risks include slipping on water or soap and falling from heights. In 1932 in New York, an average of one out of every 200 window cleaners was killed per year. On May 29, 1962, four window cleaners were killed when a scaffold fell at the Equitable Building. In 1993 Local 32BJ — the New York window cleaners' union — launched an apprentice training program, increasing job safety among its members, although increasing numbers of New York window cleaners are non-unionized.
Unlike in Scotland, there is no government licensing in the United States, England or Wales; anyone can claim to be a window cleaner. Window cleaning is considered the most dangerous job in the UK. Several window cleaners die each year, and many are injured.
Many window cleaning businesses are claiming that laws are about to come into force due to European Directive 2001/45/EC that will make ladders illegal for window cleaners. However, the government denies this stipulation, as ladder use for window cleaning is "low risk and short duration":
To clarify the situation, the Health and Safety Executive or HSE — a UK government agency — is not attempting to ban ladders or stepladders, but ladders should not be the automatic first choice of access. They should only be used after a suitable assessment of the alternatives and the prevailing site conditions. The selection process for access equipment is coming under increasing scrutiny at HSE inspections. This guidance clarifies that for short duration work like window cleaning, provided a number of well-recognized precautions are taken, ladders will remain a common tool for many jobs.
The “Working at Height Regulations” came into force in 2005 and does not ban ladders but merely restricts their use to safe methods i.e., foot it by person or with a ladderstopper:
4.2.2. The feet of portable ladders must be prevented from slipping during use by securing the stiles at or near their upper or lower ends by any anti-slip device or by any other arrangement of equivalent effectiveness. Ladders used for access must be long enough to protrude sufficiently beyond the access platform, unless other measures have been taken to ensure a firm handhold. Interlocking ladders and extension ladders must be used so that the different sections are prevented from moving relative to one another. Mobile ladders must be prevented from moving before they are stepped on.
The HSE favors the use of scaffold towers i.e., temporary workstations for window cleaning but says this is rather awkward:
"For some jobs, a mobile elevating work platform will be the best option. However, for many jobs, especially on domestic and small commercial buildings, risk assessment will demonstrate that because of the short duration of the work and features on the building that cannot be altered, ladders are the only realistic option."
Although Water Fed Pole or WFP systems are meant to be safer than ladders, the Health and Safety Executive has said that they spill large amounts of water which either the window cleaner or their client could slip on.
Robotic window cleaners
More recently, in high tech societies the use of fully automated robotic window cleaners, also for houses, is starting to become common.
Robotic cleaners use fans, vacuum or magnets to stay firmly attached to glass, while cleaning windows on the inside or outside in an “N” or “Z” pattern, squeegeeing them dry as they move on.
“Window Cleaners” animated short film
“Window Cleaners” is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on September 20, 1940 by RKO Radio Pictures.
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" comedy song
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" is a comedy song performed by Lancastrian comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film “Keep Your Seats, Please.” The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe. Formby performed the song in A♭ in “Keep Your Seats, Please.” For the single release, the key was changed to B♭.
The song was so successful that George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)." This song uses similar orchestration to the original version and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round.
Because the song’s lyrics were racy for the time, it was banned by the BBC from being played on the radio. The corporation's director general John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves;" Formby and his wife and manager Beryl Ingham were furious with the block on the song. In May 1941, Ingham informed the BBC that the song was a favorite of the royal family, particularly Queen Mary, while a statement by Formby pointed out that "I sang it before the King and Queen at the royal variety performance." The BBC relented and started to broadcast the song.
The record's sales were so successful that Regal Zonophone awarded Formby the first silver disc for sales of over 100,000 copies.
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