Can you really do a good job, is pure water simply better?

[Ackroyd_82]

so I stopped cleaning windows six years ago, but had previously worked as a window cleaner for 17 years. I felt I knew everything about the job in regards to cloths, squeegee, rubber, technique etc
So starting my my new job as the the FOH manager at a new restaurant on the shore front, I noticed the windows had tried to be cleaned but done terribly.
I went with a fresh bucket, ettore liquid, applicator squeege and a brand new ettore blade, with clean scrims etc.
Everything looked fine after I did them, I didn’t tell anyone I used to be a window cleaner.
The next day, after the sun rose, you could see every line where I turned the blade.
It looked terrible.
So second attempt, took a wet cloth, wiped the window down, then applicated, then took wet cloth around edges to remove all salt. Cleaned, next day it looked a bit better, but not great. Was I cleaning windows for 17 years doing a bad job.
I still tried pulls from different directions, did the fan method, tried straight pulls, but when the sun shone, the mistakes were there.
When I was a window cleaner I hardly lost customers, but seeing my work the day after I did the restaurant, I’d have fired myself.

 

[P4dstar]

so I stopped cleaning windows six years ago, but had previously worked as a window cleaner for 17 years. I felt I knew everything about the job in regards to cloths, squeegee, rubber, technique etc
So starting my my new job as the the FOH manager at a new restaurant on the shore front, I noticed the windows had tried to be cleaned but done terribly.
I went with a fresh bucket, ettore liquid, applicator squeege and a brand new ettore blade, with clean scrims etc.
Everything looked fine after I did them, I didn’t tell anyone I used to be a window cleaner.
The next day, after the sun rose, you could see every line where I turned the blade.
It looked terrible.
So second attempt, took a wet cloth, wiped the window down, then applicated, then took wet cloth around edges to remove all salt. Cleaned, next day it looked a bit better, but not great. Was I cleaning windows for 17 years doing a bad job.
I still tried pulls from different directions, did the fan method, tried straight pulls, but when the sun shone, the mistakes were there.
When I was a window cleaner I hardly lost customers, but seeing my work the day after I did the restaurant, I’d have fired myself.

@Pjj is your man when it comes to cleaning by the sea. I think that is likely your issue, and if you were cleaning inland previously, even just slightly inland, it’s a completely different game. When you say they did a terrible job did they do a worse job that you felt you did on your first attempt at them?

 

[Pjj]

Sounds a bit strange are you using to much soap ? This can attract the dirt especially salt as it leaves an invisible sticky surface , we don’t trad windows generally but don’t get any issues with the ones we do do that way

 

[Part Timer]

I wonder if you've actually scrubbed enough when applicating. The salt can really stick to the windows and will take many attempts to remove totally.
We are east coast as well and if you have an easterly wind you will not be able to keep them clean. We can turn up some months and the windows are still clean from the previous wash. Turn up the next time and they're virtually opaque.
The customers tell us they can go to bed with clean windows and wake up with filthy ones, and if you are close to the sea you won't need a strong easterly to make yours dirty again.

 

[john docherty]

Yo can squeegee a window with any
Technique soap best of rubber clean water
If you get a just boiled kettle hold it so the steam goes over your best squeegeed window you will see every turn every trail you did with the squeegee its all there invisible to the eye

 

[Ackroyd_82]

Sounds a bit strange are you using to much soap ? This can attract the dirt especially salt as it leaves an invisible sticky surface , we don’t trad windows generally but don’t get any issues with the ones we do do that way

No not really. If you don’t use enough, the blade wont glide, and it will stutter leaving marks. If you use too much, there is suds everywhere making it hard to clean the sills. I couldn’t believe how bad the windows looked the day after i did them in the sun. Yes from the outside they looked clean, but the lines, every single turn. The restaurant is in the harbour do right on the sea front.

My question is, would a pure water system eliminate all of that?

 

[Scrubsy]

@Ackroyd_82 I live close to the sea and notice a difference in the properties that are close to the sea front and those that aren't. I use a couple of different traditional liquids on the squeegee jobs I have. Ettore squeegee off is great but also quite soapy, so I find unger ninja liquid the best (diluted to half the recommendation). Is the ettore squeegee you are using a wide body? I find them best for big windows as the pressure on the blade is nice and even. Sorry if stating the obvious mate.

 

[Ackroyd_82]

@Pjj is your man when it comes to cleaning by the sea. I think that is likely your issue, and if you were cleaning inland previously, even just slightly inland, it’s a completely different game. When you say they did a terrible job did they do a worse job that you felt you did on your first attempt at them?

Yeah i used to have work inland too. I found that those windows hardly ever got dirty, but you would have more cobwebs and flies spots on the window, and snail marks.

By the sea you don’t get much of that, you just get seagull poop and salt. And yeah, you can clean the windows one day, get a storm, then the windows are worse the day after.
I just wonder with coast work, you will never ever get them completely clean.

After 6 years of not doing windows, I’ve just started helping my dad who has now gone onto the pole system.
I find it so easy, it doesn’t feel like real work, running up and down ladders all day. Carrying a bucket. Using tons of scrim etc
I don’t even really break a sweat. Plus i can wear big thick waterproof gloves, which i could never do trad cause i needed to feel the scrim and squeegee etc.
But it feels weird leaving the window wet, and not really seeing the final product.
With trad, you see the final product straight away.

When i lived in London my GF had a company that cam round and cleaned the whole block of flats with the pole system. I was not impressed. So i after they came, i cleaned half of the window trad wise, took a picture, then showed him the difference. It was night and day. He know uses a squeegee to finish off our windows. Because of that I’ve never really trusted the pure water system

 

[Pjj]

No not really. If you don’t use enough, the blade wont glide, and it will stutter leaving marks. If you use too much, there is suds everywhere making it hard to clean the sills. I couldn’t believe how bad the windows looked the day after i did them in the sun. Yes from the outside they looked clean, but the lines, every single turn. The restaurant is in the harbour do right on the sea front.

My question is, would a pure water system eliminate all of that?

We do hotels and restaurants that are either on the beach or 50 meters away and get covered in salt spray , sand and sea weed and wfp the lot cold water will do it but hot is a lot quicker and desolves the salt much faster , the windows are always spotless after cleaning , can never guarantee for how long due to storms etc but never had any issues.
As for the clean quality that’s down to the purity of the water and experience and technique which comes in time I doubt anyone will get perfect results initially it’s practice makes perfect

 

[Ackroyd_82]

Definitely scrubbed enough. And what i did the second time i did the windows, was use one side of the applicator to take the salt off then squeegee, then re-applicate with the other side and squeegee off a second time. Still lines everywhere. But only noticeable when the sun was setting and shining directly at windows

 

[Ackroyd_82]

Yo can squeegee a window with any
Technique soap best of rubber clean water
If you get a just boiled kettle hold it so the steam goes over your best squeegeed window you will see every turn every trail you did with the squeegee its all there invisible to the eye

Do you know what i have noticed that. So sometimes customers have had an extractor from the kitchen that produces steam and hits the window you just cleaned. Whenever i cleaned that window, the steam would show where i stopped with the squeegee where i turned etc. but usually they just disappear. On those windows i usually just did straight pulls.

 

[Ackroyd_82]

We do hotels and restaurants that are either on the beach or 50 meters away and get covered in salt spray , sand and sea weed and wfp the lot cold water will do it but hot is a lot quicker and desolves the salt much faster , the windows are always spotless after cleaning , can never guarantee for how long due to storms etc but never had any issues.
As for the clean quality that’s down to the purity of the water and experience and technique which comes in time I doubt anyone will get perfect results initially it’s practice makes perfect

So is the only way to do beachfront windows, to use pure water? I mean sometimes the salt is so thick it’s like a grit on the window.
When I did the windows they looked great, it was only when the sun was setting that you could see the lines. I tried wiping the salt off first with a cloth then cleaning, and although it helped it still wasn’t perfect.
The only way i really got past it was to clean the window then re-applicate, wipe the top edge with a cloth and then do straight pulls. But this isn’t cost or time effective