Dave Shaw
Well-known member
- Messages
- 679
- Location
- Westhoughton
Well put. Although in most commercial window cleaning ladders have been obsolete for over a decade now and you couldn’t use them even if you wanted to, they are an integral part of a domestic window cleaners kit. I know a lot like to pick and choose their jobs based on what they are willing to do but aren’t they usually the same people slating some 100% traditional cleaners for doin half a job cos they don’t do frames and windows over connys etc. Well isn’t refusing to use ladders just the same? What about all the blind first cleans on upstairs windows that your doin. I know you like to use your instincts but you will never be 100% sure. Even if you don’t like workin off ladders you will still need them for access like flat roofs that poles can’t get to and bolted gates that you can’t reach off the ground. I know some of you text the night before to leave gates unlocked but you can’t expect them to leave them unsecured altogether blowing off their hinges in the wind.I agree to a point. However I think it is nearly impossible to completely get rid of ladders in out line of work. Well at this moment in time. There will always be flat roof extensions that mean you have to climb up on to get at, or slipped tiles stopping you using a gutter vac. Until there is a way round those issues a ladder will be necessary. I know the jobs are few and far between, but there will always be those odd 1 or 2 that mean ladders are unavoidable. Obviously if your starting out in similar situations to how you did, then ladders are a necessary tool. And I'd fully support an apprenticeship type training for windys, I looked into this as a way of taking on a member of staff on the cheap when I get that big, and there is one covering external contract cleaning where you can do window cleaning as your placement, can't remember what the actual course name is, but making the industry more, for lack of the right word "respectable" and safer, would benefit everyone, custys and windys alike.
All of my work is now 100% wfp, and I'm slowly converting my father in laws work, whilst facing resistance from him (old school trader set in ways) even though in 25 years he's had 8 falls!!!
The world is always changing and I always agree that if you don’t keep up you will be left behind, that said until I sprout wings and learn to fly ladders will always be a part of my kit.
If your not confident then don’t use them, simple as, but if they were as unsafe as some people say they would stop making them altogether not to mention the 1000s of tradesman that use them everyday.
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