Left streaks - suggestions?

[Ednic]

Hi guys,

I'm brand new, been going two weeks, attempting to get customers just by canvassing and see how I go, so far it's going alright, however, I've hit a bit of a wall this morning and worried. I was doing a house with hydrophobic windows. The upstairs windows hadn't been cleaned for years so I thoroughly brushed them with a bit of ubik (mixed with tap water) on my brush (ultimate 26cm medium) and tried to rinse well using pure water through pencil jets (aware that a lot of rinsing was needed with it being hydrophobic glass). I waited for a while until I then did the same for the windows directly below the upstairs windows. I then did the back of the house which took a while, as was filthy and had a conservatory. When I thought I'd finished I came round the front again to check how the front windows were looking...I noticed grey streaks all over the ground floor windows and some on the above windows! I put my pole and hose back together and scrubbed and rinsed like mad just using pure water but I couldn't have got rid of all the streaks. I told the customer that I'll come back to do more rinsing tomorrow if she's not happy. Thankfully she was very understanding and said it'll be fine until next month and that she knows the windows are tricky and have been neglected. 

I've been reading similar threads and just bought a flocked brush and fan jets to help going forward. Do you think it was simply down to not rinsing the tap water/ubik well enough? What would be the best way of getting rid of the streaks? Any other advice?

Many thanks, and I'm very grateful for the tonnes of advice that's offered regularly on this forum.

 

[Coops]

Hi you shouldn't ever need to add anything to clean windows, just use the water. If the windows are wooden they can streak as the dirt will seep out from the wood and paint. this will stop when the windows have been cleaned a couple of times. Also clean the frames first then treat them as part of the glass otherwise it will drip from the frame onto your nice clean glass. Allow the top windows to stop dripping down before you clean the lower windows otherwise you will have water splashing off the lower sills onto the glass creating spots. Hope this help, follow these rules and you should be fine.

 

[spruce]

Hi guys,

I'm brand new, been going two weeks, attempting to get customers just by canvassing and see how I go, so far it's going alright, however, I've hit a bit of a wall this morning and worried. I was doing a house with hydrophobic windows. The upstairs windows hadn't been cleaned for years so I thoroughly brushed them with a bit of ubik (mixed with tap water) on my brush (ultimate 26cm medium) and tried to rinse well using pure water through pencil jets (aware that a lot of rinsing was needed with it being hydrophobic glass). I waited for a while until I then did the same for the windows directly below the upstairs windows. I then did the back of the house which took a while, as was filthy and had a conservatory. When I thought I'd finished I came round the front again to check how the front windows were looking...I noticed grey streaks all over the ground floor windows and some on the above windows! I put my pole and hose back together and scrubbed and rinsed like mad just using pure water but I couldn't have got rid of all the streaks. I told the customer that I'll come back to do more rinsing tomorrow if she's not happy. Thankfully she was very understanding and said it'll be fine until next month and that she knows the windows are tricky and have been neglected. 

I've been reading similar threads and just bought a flocked brush and fan jets to help going forward. Do you think it was simply down to not rinsing the tap water/ubik well enough? What would be the best way of getting rid of the streaks? Any other advice?

Many thanks, and I'm very grateful for the tonnes of advice that's offered regularly on this forum.

We purchased a trad round which consisted of mainly dormers. We were trad cleaners and this was our first attempt at wfp cleaning 16 years ago. When we did a first clean we had to clean frames and glass, rinse well and go off to another house (we bought a compact round from glass cleaners who didn't clean the frames.) Then we did the same with the third house. By that time the first house's windows had finished dripping down and had dried off. We then did the glass only. We did the same with the second and third house's windows.

There were still a couple of windows we had to again clean and rinse. On a couple of the downstairs windows we just bladed them off.

We didn't have any problems to speak of when cleaning the round the next time.

Today with more experience and better equipment we would have done the work a little quicker but we managed through the pain of inexperience.

My advice is not to be too afraid the blade problem windows off. WFP isn't the perfect solution to every clean, but its the safest.

Our lounge windows are probably the worst on the round. They are south facing and we experience some oxidation of the UPVC frames in the sun which creates streak dots down the windows from water that's run off the top frame and dried.