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Streaks my kingdom to be free of streaks!

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Dino

Dino

Well-known member
Messages
94
Location
North Yorkshire
Hi all,

Bit of a noobe here so just wondered if anyone can give me some advice.  

Got called back to a job today after I did it with water fed pole.  Lady stated that there was water marks all over the windows when dried?  I have not had any other complaints.  Am using water from a spotless water depot.  No issues with the water.  I was rinsing off with a high flow rate.  I did them again and let them dry.  I did notice that water seemed to run out of the rubber seal on the top as if water had got under the seal?  Instead of horizontal spotting you might expect there were clearly water marks where water had run down from top to bottom after I had rinsed and left.  How do I deal with this in future?  How is best to avoid water marks in general using water fed pole? Her windows have no vents by the way.

Cheers

Dino.

 
Dino said:
Hi all,

Bit of a noobe here so just wondered if anyone can give me some advice.  

Got called back to a job today after I did it with water fed pole.  Lady stated that there was water marks all over the windows when dried?  I have not had any other complaints.  Am using water from a spotless water depot.  No issues with the water.  I was rinsing off with a high flow rate.  I did them again and let them dry.  I did notice that water seemed to run out of the rubber seal on the top as if water had got under the seal?  Instead of horizontal spotting you might expect there were clearly water marks where water had run down from top to bottom after I had rinsed and left.  How do I deal with this in future?  How is best to avoid water marks in general using water fed pole? Her windows have no vents by the way.

Cheers

Dino.
Click to expand...


Are you asking about windows with two openers above a large single glass pane below?

 
I have some windows like that. After I've cleaned it I leave it 10 mins while I do the back of the house or collect etc. Then I give it a second quick rinse but only going up to an inch from the top edge- no closer. Also have the spray angled downwards. Like Spruce says, it usually happens on a large pane beneath two openers and the run is directly down from between the openers. -In which case I'm also careful to not get any water above the top openers or between them.

If it's a single pane, then the seal must have gone and is holding water.

 
Dino said:
Some of them were?  Is there a technique for that?
Click to expand...


Some of them can be a pain. Some of them come right, some don't. We have a house behind us which is particularily bad. We find the only way is to do all the top openers first, first customer clean of the day and then clean other houses on the estate. We find that they will definitely have stopped bleeding down by the afternoon. We then do the rest of the windows in the afternoon.

One of the local lads once dumped all his customers who had windows like these that had issues. He had a pretty full schedule. But if you aren't in that 'fortunate' position then you have to do the best you can.

We have another house where the seals have gone. We did a first clean 5 weeks ago. I went back 4 hours later to inspect the windows and they were still bleeding down. We did them again a week ago and we did them traditionally off ladders. The windows had streaks from the previous clean which is the worst I have ever experienced. It was like the Nile river delta.

If you are asked to quote, go in high because in most cases our experience tells us they are going to take you much longer.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cheers Spruce that is really helpful.  I am not in a position to dump willy nilly.  Only got 60 customers.  One just died so thats 59!  

 
You can put a cloth on your brush, after you've turned the water off and rub it in the gap between the windows and then dry the glass off under the run. I've found by doing this for a few washes it's nowhere near as bad and only need to do it every 2nd / 3rd wash. I have to do this at my sister in laws ?

 
Part Timer said:
You can put a cloth on your brush, after you've turned the water off and rub it in the gap between the windows and then dry the glass off under the run. I've found by doing this for a few washes it's nowhere near as bad and only need to do it every 2nd / 3rd wash. I have to do this at my sister in laws ?
Click to expand...
?

 
Agree with spruce. If i have a problem window or problem situation i just ditch the wfp and trad. This is rare, often involving the first clean. One house i took on recently the seals are so far gone that replacement is the only answer. They are decades old & leak ruining the pvc leaving a black streaky mess all over the plastics. If you go near the seals your cloths will turn black and you just cant help but spread the mess. i can tell the guy who did it before me must have been a tradder and had a hell of a time as there were black wipe marks all over the plastic. 

I also did a maintenance clean the other week where the glass was covered in those yellow spots (spider poo? Pollen?) i have no idea what it is but water fed pole wouldnt touch it. Even degreaser wouldnt touch it. I had to trad all of the windows and its not a small house, the front & side alone took me an hour and a half so thank god the back could be done wfp ?

only a hot water system may have stood a chance in terms of wfp.

I dont put all my trust in one method entirely. Sometimes glass can be in such a state that trad seems to be the only way out. On the flip side of the coin loft conversions and velux windows wfp is the only realistic option.

Personally i wouldnt muck around coming back in the afternoon it sounds a bit of a PITA to me, i like to put a job to bed “there and then” 

I lose time flipping between cleaning methods but if its necessary then so be it?‍♂️ 

 
Incheck said:
Agree with spruce. If i have a problem window or problem situation i just ditch the wfp and trad. This is rare, often involving the first clean. One house i took on recently the seals are so far gone that replacement is the only answer. They are decades old & leak ruining the pvc leaving a black streaky mess all over the plastics. If you go near the seals your cloths will turn black and you just cant help but spread the mess. i can tell the guy who did it before me must have been a tradder and had a hell of a time as there were black wipe marks all over the plastic. 

I also did a maintenance clean the other week where the glass was covered in those yellow spots (spider poo? Pollen?) i have no idea what it is but water fed pole wouldnt touch it. Even degreaser wouldnt touch it. I had to trad all of the windows and its not a small house, the front & side alone took me an hour and a half so thank god the back could be done wfp ?

only a hot water system may have stood a chance in terms of wfp.

I dont put all my trust in one method entirely. Sometimes glass can be in such a state that trad seems to be the only way out. On the flip side of the coin loft conversions and velux windows wfp is the only realistic option.

Personally i wouldnt muck around coming back in the afternoon it sounds a bit of a PITA to me, i like to put a job to bed “there and then” 

I lose time flipping between cleaning methods but if its necessary then so be it?‍♂️ 
Click to expand...
Yes its a shame, but they need either new windows, or a trad cleaner. have noticed this year, shocking amount of spiders, and their poo heaps on the sills never seem to come totally clean, even with elbow grease and the abrasive side of the magic sponge. 

 
ks789 said:
Yes its a shame, but they need either new windows, or a trad cleaner. have noticed this year, shocking amount of spiders, and their poo heaps on the sills never seem to come totally clean, even with elbow grease and the abrasive side of the magic sponge. 
Click to expand...


I was remarking the same thing the other day. Usually the spider mess peaks in October but its been rather bad this year so far. If it still peaks in October then its going to be bad.

I don't worry too much about the stain left behind on UPVC window frames and sills from spider poo. The sun will slowly 'bleach' them away and those stains will be gone by the end of winter.

 
spruce said:
I was remarking the same thing the other day. Usually the spider mess peaks in October but its been rather bad this year so far. If it still peaks in October then its going to be bad.

I don't worry too much about the stain left behind on UPVC window frames and sills from spider poo. The sun will slowly 'bleach' them away and those stains will be gone by the end of winter.
Click to expand...
 hopefully its just a freak year for them. They really have been the hardest part of the work this tear imo

 
ks789 said:
 hopefully its just a freak year for them. They really have been the hardest part of the work this tear imo
Click to expand...


We have the outside of our local school atrium to do in the next few days. I asked the school to get the pest controllers in last year but they didn't. This one is going to be a hard clean this year.

I'm not happy with having these spiders erradicated, but it seems our wfp window cleaning method encourages them to thrive.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
spruce said:
We have the outside of our local school atrium to do in the next few days. I asked the school to get the pest controllers in last year but they didn't. This one is going to be a hard clean this year.
Click to expand...
Its strange, some properties are much worse than others. i did this big country house yesterday and its every 3 months which will make it worse, but there were 4 or 5 of these cucoon spider things, with spider inside, on every pane. yet on other properties, barely any. Gap in the market for an inventor - some product that they dont like to keep them away. but I guess thats not very green.

 
spruce said:
We have the outside of our local school atrium to do in the next few days. I asked the school to get the pest controllers in last year but they didn't. This one is going to be a hard clean this year.

I'm not happy with having these spiders erradicated, but it seems our wfp window cleaning method encourages them to thrive.
Click to expand...




I find with 4 weekly work using hot water the spiders don’t like it at all and on most properties after a few months they are gone either dead or they don’t tend to come back so much .

on one off cleans end of tenancy jobs etc sometimes you have to peel the webs off the brush it’s that bad and sticky like glue , we have had a bad year this year with them I wondered if it was beacause last summer was so good that they reproduced more ???

 
Usually the darker side of the house, especially if there are trees nearby, are favoured by spiders. I do a job in Cambridge that is 3 buildings and 5 floors, on one side of one of the buildings there are hundreds of spiders webs and nests with eggs up to the third floor. It might be higher but I can't see past there. 

 
Part Timer said:
Usually the darker side of the house, especially if there are trees nearby, are favoured by spiders. I do a job in Cambridge that is 3 buildings and 5 floors, on one side of one of the buildings there are hundreds of spiders webs and nests with eggs up to the third floor. It might be higher but I can't see past there. 
Click to expand...




You need one of these ? ??

 

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