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One for the coastal cleaners

As @Robt100 says, Vinegar and chips are the usual things you need. Apply the vinegar to the glass. Eat the chips. By the time you've finished the chips, wash it off with pure ?

Salt will dissolve in water so you don't really need any vinegar but I've read that salt dissolves more readily in acidic solutions. 

So I think I'd just go ahead and put that vinegar on your chips, apply Viakal, eat chips, wash off.

Some window cleaning mates of mine in Peterhead told me they squeegeed anything next to the coast as it's too much faff with wfp.

 
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Viakal didn't touch it, used nearly a bottle. The people that manage it cleaned it before using white vinegar but it took 10 of them ages so they asked the supposed professionals ? 

 
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Remove salts with acids - start from pH 4-5, if it doesn’t help - raise up to pH1.
Once had same problem - strong acid took it off in seconds.
NB! Can’t just wash acid off the glass, you have to neutralise it with bases. Chemistry basics.
IMG_0568.JPG


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Remove salts with acids - start from pH 4-5, if it doesn’t help - raise up to pH1.
Once had same problem - strong acid took it off in seconds.
NB! Can’t just wash acid off the glass, you have to neutralise it with bases. Chemistry basics.
View attachment 15022


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Far too complicated for us Northerners ? Job only paid £30 ?

 
That's what we ended up doing, but with a 3" scraper. I thought hot water would've melted it off, wrong. We then tried a 3" scraper and that didn't touch it. We then tried various chemicals, no good. In the end I just ran hot water over it whilst my son was scraping. Took an hour and ten minutes. 

We have it to do next month for £15, let's hope the salt isn't as bad. We live and learn. 

 
Are you sure it’s just salt ? No other contamination? Not limescale ? We do lots of salty windows some look like the bottom of your window and are opaque all over , they are like this every clean , on some holiday homes we do them twice a week when the weather is bad all we use is hot water and they come up like new no spotting or any marks at all  , evan stuff that’s infrequently cleaned comes up fine with just hot pure,  strange it’s not a chemical reaction with anything is it .

 
Are you sure it’s just salt ? No other contamination? Not limescale ? We do lots of salty windows some look like the bottom of your window and are opaque all over , they are like this every clean , on some holiday homes we do them twice a week when the weather is bad all we use is hot water and they come up like new no spotting or any marks at all  , evan stuff that’s infrequently cleaned comes up fine with just hot pure,  strange it’s not a chemical reaction with anything is it .
Yes salt only, there isn't a road within 50 yards and it is literally at the end of a pier. It hadn't been done since May and with the exceptional summer we had the salt just built  up. If you zoom in on the photo you can actually see the salt that came off. 

IMG-20181020-WA0000.jpg

It's actually run by a lovely set of volunteers and even though not profitable, doing it I actually enjoyed the learning curve. I also have a free pass for the tour under the pier and up  the lighthouse ?

 
Cleaning salts from a window surface with acid






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Interesting video, it's a different ball game over here. I would have to notify my insurance company if I were to use anything like a strong acid or alkali. I don't know if I would actually be allowed either without going on some basic course. With a small amount of salt like that my hot water system would remove it very quickly without the need of anything else. 

 
Yes intresting indeed may be Ime lucky but in 20 years of cleaning windows I’ve always been able to get rid of it either with trad methods or for  the last 15 years with wfp last 4 years with hot water cold has always removed it but it’s a slow process with hot it just melts it straight away , as I say maybe I’ve been lucky never seen anything stick to the glass like that unless it’s limescale out of cement or hard water scale staining 

 
It definitely was only salt as we ended up virtually chipping it off. I think, and hope, it was a combination of being 20' from the sea, a very hot dry summer and timescale, not done since May. Doing it next month as now booked in as a monthly job, will find out then. 

 
It definitely was only salt as we ended up virtually chipping it off. I think, and hope, it was a combination of being 20' from the sea, a very hot dry summer and timescale, not done since May. Doing it next month as now booked in as a monthly job, will find out then. 




Ime intrested to see how you get on with it , do an update with how it goes ,we do lots that are literally yards from the sea they get seaweed on the glass and sand and are that thick in salt you cannot see through them but they always clean up with just hot water 

 
Ime intrested to see how you get on with it , do an update with how it goes ,we do lots that are literally yards from the sea they get seaweed on the glass and sand and are that thick in salt you cannot see through them but they always clean up with just hot water 
I do as well, that's why when I quoted I was certain that hot water would've have sorted it. Hopefully the fact that it was 6 months since they were cleaned was the mitigating reason why hot water didn't sort it. 

At the end of day if it is going to be an ongoing PITA the price will go up. They ain't going to get anyone else 

 
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