Professional Window Cleaning

First you think that professional window cleaning must be an easy job. Then you look at all the tools they carry and wonder what they are or why they need so many tools for something that looks easy. Well, professional window cleaning is anything but easy. Remember, the glass is not always accessible at ground level. So to clean glasses that are between the ground floor and the third floor they use the Window cleaning services on which they can attach various tools such as Squeegees, glass scrapers, scraper blades, etc.

Let us see what these professional window cleaning tools are.

The Squeegee

The Squeegee is a basic tool carried by all professional window cleaning crews. When in use, it can control and direct the flow of water over the glass and also double up as a mop to remove water from glass surfaces. Squeegees range in size from 4 inches to almost 2 feet. The large squeegee is obviously used on ultra-large glass surfaces. Interestingly, a new squeegee requires assembly. Much like military or police personnel who assemble or disassemble, clean and reassemble their guns, Traditional window cleaning crews do the same for the humble squeegee.

Scraper Blades and Glass Scrapers

Some buildings are located in areas that result in a lot of dirt and grime deposited on the windows and glass surfaces. Over time, the grime tends to harden a bit and this calls for a different tool known as the scrapper blade or glass scrapper. Using the scrapper blade however requires skill – skill of the Commercial Window Cleaning crew. Wrongly used, instead of removing grime, the glass scrapper could result in scratches or worse, broken windows.

Window mop

The purpose of a window mop is identical to that of the squeegee. The difference however, is that the window mop is soft and used on delicate glass surfaces such as church windows or stained glass windows. Window mops are also better suited for smaller windows like the kind fitted in houses and apartments.

Window cleaning pole

For residences and stand-alone shopping malls, a professional widow cleaning crew usually uses the window cleaning pole. A Professional window cleaner will stand on the ground, connect the window cleaning pole to a water supply source and attach a squeegee at the top end of the pole. The window cleaning pole can then be extended to reach windows on the first, second or even the third floor. Due to its weight and physical characteristics of using the window pole, it requires a strong arm and lots of good experience. Professional widow cleaning crews usually carry several different window cleaning poles. In fact, the window cleaning pole is one of the most important tools in their arsenal against dirty windows.

Bucket

If you have ever observed a Professional window cleaning crew at work, you might have also noticed them use a rather odd looking bucket. Standard buckets are round whereas the buckets used by professional widow cleaning crews are kind of rectangular in shape. This design enables them to easily dip the squeegee into the bucket.

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Commercial High Rise Window Cleaning – Robots or Humans

Couple of months back, we at Vision Cleaning tried using automated commercial high rise window cleaners to clean high rise windows. Our purpose back then was to test these robots with the intention of incorporating them into our commercial high rise window cleaning service especially for dangerous high rise jobs.

Two months and 19 attempts later, we’ve given up. Here’s why:

Setting up the commercial high rise window cleaning robot takes about as much time as setting up the tools, equipment and cleaning platform for humans to do the job. The highland window cleaner needed to be properly aligned and its grip to the glass and non-glass surface had to be properly tested before letting it go. The automated window cleaning robot needed to be always released from the top so that the weight of the wire does not detach the robot from the glass surface.

The biggest challenge we faced using robots in high-rise window cleaning situations was the fact that a high rise building or commercial front, is not always 100% glass but usually a combination of glass and metal or glass and concrete or some other fancy material.

Before we let the commercial high rise window cleaning robot begin, we need to ensure that the surface will provide sufficient adhesive force for the robot to cling to. Also, to provide an element of safety, we needed to anchor the robot tether firmly to the roof as there was always a danger that the robot or automated commercial high rise window cleaner might fall off in which case, at the very least we would have lost an expensive piece of equipment and in a worst case scenario, people might get injured or even killed. A Domestic window cleaner can weigh anything from 5kgs to 25kgs. Imagine it dropping on somebody from say 20 stories up. The potential for serious injury or death is very real.

Setup and safety issues apart, the main reason we decided against using automated Professional window cleaning services robots was the fact that as yet, they just don’t do a good job. A robot window cleaning device has no way of distinguishing a dusty window from a grime covered dirty window. It treats all glass surfaces alike and therein lays the ultimate problem to using robots for cleaning windows. Also, unlike humans, the robot has no way of sensing how much pressure its cleaning brush can exert over the glass. In our experience, window panes are not uniformly dirty and therefore treating each and every pane the same does not do a good job of cleaning windows at all.

The ultimate test came when we cleaned two identical glass surfaces of a large shopping mall. One surface was cleaned by our human crew while the other was cleaned by the robotic professional window cleaners. The manager at the mall was far from impressed with the robot. He said and I quote, “good attempt by the robot but your human crew would have to redo the part the robot did”. And that folks was the last time we used an automated window cleaner. When it comes to window cleaning only humans can do a job that will be appreciated by fellow humans.

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