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Dealing with drip down

P4dstar

Premium Member
Messages
3,956
Location
Gloucestershire
When i'm cleaning I often find myself walking round the house twice. I clean the upstairs windows first, then work back around the house working on windows that don't have any others above them and then one last time round the ground floor on the remaining windows. I've always done it this way because I was taught that you need to wait for the upstairs windows to stop dripping water down before you start on the downstairs ones.

This made perfect sense because the water coming down is dirty. Recently i've been watching some YouTube vids and caught a couple of other windies in action. No one seems to stress about drip down the way I have been. This week i've tried something different, I started to clean a few other windows on a side, wipe the sill and crack on downstairs the same side. I've tried this on a few properties and as far as I can see the drips coming from above don't touch the downstairs windows as long as you wipe away the excess water. The only exception has been ones with stone sills, too much dirt on them to risk it.

Just wondering what other people do? Anyone got any advice?

 
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I generaly find that by the time you have done the top windows the amount of drips is minimal then by the time you have  cleaned the bottom window and start rinsing it there is nothing to worry about , we only go round the house once do the tops then immediately do the bottoms never had a problem working this way 

 
I just run brush along sill to remove excess water and continue along the top row then drop straight down to the window below when I reach the end. Never once had a complaint, but this is the main reason I won't work in strong winds 

 
I generaly find that by the time you have done the top windows the amount of drips is minimal then by the time you have  cleaned the bottom window and start rinsing it there is nothing to worry about , we only go round the house once do the tops then immediately do the bottoms never had a problem working this way 
I've shaved loads of time off this week doing it that way. The only thing I've done is wiped the upper sills before I start downstairs, takes a coupe of seconds and seems to remove the bulk of the drips.

I just run brush along sill to remove excess water and continue along the top row then drop straight down to the window below when I reach the end. Never once had a complaint, but this is the main reason I won't work in strong winds 
Thats pretty much what i've been doing. Reckon I've been wasting time pretty much since I started doing it the other way!

 
Should've asked the pro's earlier ?‍♂️?
I asked different 'Pros' unfortunately. Also questions about technique and how to actually clean don't seem to get a good response on here, its all technical stuff that you can put a definitive answer on, anything that is open for interpretation seems to go out the window.

 
I think in the early days all newbies overclean, or I hope they do. It's only when you've been going a while and have that added confidence should you be looking to improve / speed up your technique.

 
Yeah @P4dstar you were over thinking it.

If the upstairs window & sill is regulary cleaned properly, the drips coming off the sill will be pretty clean/pure still.

But if you watch, most drips from the upstairs sills often miss the downstairs windows I’ve noticed. I don’t know why as they look perfectly inline above.

But at the very most, it’s going to hit the bottom sill and splash up slightly, but if the downstairs window is cleaned & thoroughly rinsed, then the very small splashes from upstairs will turn pure again (if they’re aren’t already still pure) from the  water drying/running off the downstairs glass.

Ive got a few houses where it’s easier to do a side all at once, instead of doing the upstairs all the way round then the downstairs. I don’t even think twice about drips from upstairs anymore. I used to at the start.

 
What I do is say for example I have three windows upstairs to clean then three right below those windows, I'll clean all three upstairs then once I've finished the last one I'll then run my brush back along those 3 upstairs sills to remove most of the excess. Then I'll start the bottoms. If, while I'm cleaning the bottom ones the upstairs ones are still dripping, I'll give the brush another pass over the sill. This generally makes sure all excess water is now gone. Then once I'm happy no more dripping, I'll go ahead and rinse that bottom window. As I'm moving along I'm kind of always assessing the drippage. If it's quite a lot, again I'll extend the brush quickly and give the sill another pass.

 
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When I first started wfp I had the same question about dripdown. I was cleaning my late brother in laws house and he said just do tops first and then bottoms as see how the bottom windows dry. Just do it and then spend a few minutes and check back later. If there is a problem then you will quickly see what you can and can't do. He wasn't a window cleaner, but he's advice made good sense to me.

Again each house is different. If we have an old Victorian house with bays windows, I will do the upper front bay first. The hose gets dragged around to the back with the amount I need to clean the furthest window and I then pull enough hose around the front to do that upper bay. Its then around to the back, do tops and then around to the side and do any tops there. If there is an offset bottom window and door I will do those. Then around to the back to do the back bottoms. Once down then it around to the front to do the rest. 

The problem with answering 'how to clean' questions @P4dstar is that everyone works differently as are their cleaning standards. None of us will clean a window perfectly, so its down to how far you go to meet and exceed your both yours and your customer's expectations. If you overclean (I'm still guilty of that 15 years on) its costing you money as you aren't getting anything more for the job. For me its also a waste of energy which I don't have much off these days. However the plus side is that your customer sees effort and believes he is getting better value for money if he's at home watching you.

I don't totally agree with the comments made by one of the local lads many years ago but the principle is still interesting. He said that if your customer is happy with a 90% clean, why waste your time cleaning to 95%. He works to this standard. I have often gone around to a house I know he has zip cleaned earlier, inspected it out of curiosity and in all due honestly I see very little difference in his result when compared to mine doing a similar house. 

When son in law worked with us he was also a zip cleaner. I got numerous phone calls from our customers complaining that he didn't clean the windows properly. I responded to each complaint and didn't see a single issue. The customer believed that because he was quick he was cleaning properly when compared to the way I used to clean them. But a visual inspection showed the result to be to my standards.

There was a window cleaner years back who started making brushes at night in his garage at home. The brushes he made weighed a ton and tightly packed with bristles. He was adamant that all you needed was one pass on the glass and you didn't have to rinse if you had a good flow of water through your jets. We tried that but the result wasn't satisfactory. If he genuinely cleaned windows like that and was happy with the result then his cleaning standards were much lower than ours. He also worked in a different environment to where we work - he was based inland where we are coastal based - a big difference in washing and rinsing techniques.

I still say that we spend more time flushing the bits out of the gap between the cill and the window frame than we spend cleaning the whole window. One of the other lads doesn't bother doing that. He just wipes the muck off the lower cill with a cloth and moves on. He hasn't had a complaint from a customer about the dirt left in the gap in 12 years either and never cleaned the gap when cleaning the same house trad for many years before that.

In fact, the once or twice I worked with him doing his customers, I tried to clean the gap out, he asked me why I was wasting my time. 

My advise to you is to do what works for you. Then as you go try to look to make little adjustments to save time. Its a case of working smarter rather than taking shortcuts.

Do you turn water off when you pass over sill on top windows or mo need?


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In the final pass to remove water from the upstairs cills - yes.

 
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For example if I’m cleaning the back I would do all top windows then offset lower windows and then bottom windows directly under the tops starting at tfrom the first top window cleaned.

After each top window clean I would give the sill a quick swipe with the brush with water off.

 
Useful tip - thanks


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Goes back to having tap in right place or univalve


Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Forums

 
Useful tip - thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Forums

Goes back to having tap in right place or univalve


Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Forums
Not really, just quickly nip the hose which takes a few seconds and swipe across the sill

 
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I do my best, and will go over again a bit if I notice its not right, but basically im wash and go. You can go back and look with a fine tooth comb and will always find a bit of fault if you look hard enough, and ive said this to customers. They can take it or leave it. Plenty other customers.

 
Do you turn water off when you pass over sill on top windows or mo need?
Yeah I turn it off. Also if the frames are the type that hold a lot of water above the panes I give them a little wipe with a dry brush, this definitely helped reduce spotting.

The problem with answering 'how to clean' questions @P4dstar is that everyone works differently as are their cleaning standards.
I see what you mean, it just seems people give a better response to this kind of question if its controversial. Take the post recently about rinsing as an example. Anyway, no bother. I have never actually struggled to get the advice or help i've been looking for. I think the original technique I had was developed after watching an Irish chap called Steven Lee on Youtube as well as what the lad who trained me said.

My advise to you is to do what works for you. Then as you go try to look to make little adjustments to save time. Its a case of working smarter rather than taking shortcuts.
Agreed mate. I'm with you though, I think I'm always gonna be guilty of over cleaning just like you. Nothing wring with that though as long as its being done in a reasonable time.

For example if I’m cleaning the back I would do all top windows then offset lower windows and then bottom windows directly under the tops starting at tfrom the first top window cleaned.

After each top window clean I would give the sill a quick swipe with the brush with water off.
This is basically what i've been trying this last week, working a treat. There have been a couple of exceptions, dirty stone sills and houses with roof tile type cladding on  but just your standard UPVC windows it seems to have sped me up.

My work is mostly well priced and I was always worrying how I would get beyond £200 a day even after reorganisation of the round it didn't seem doable but this has helped. I guess I posted this because I just wanted reassurance, it may sound like a little thing to some but its a big change in my way of working to be fair!

 
Its true, that drip down is a pain. The few complaints ive had have all been down to this. Also always gonna show up worse on the windows that get the sun. In the future a pole with a blast away feature to blow away all water etc off the sill would be good. Long way off but who knows what the stuff of the future could be?

 
I think the future involves a pressure washer type head using pure water. Don't think it would be good for first cleans but great after them.
I could see a separate hose/pipe for blasted air,  or maybe hoover style to suck up all the water before drip down. I know people will scoff at such ideas, but imagine telling window cleaners 50 years ago that we'd be cleaning with pump fed water from lightweight poles. They'd have probably hung you up as a heretic lol. But seriously, There will be plenty more innovations, thats for sure.

 
Yes, technology is moving on so fast. They sit in classrooms and discuss problems, any problems even on the net and come up with solutions from all over the world. What one person thinks as silly a group sees an opportunity to make money. That's why everything is moving so fast. One day it could be like a plastic screen protector which you just replace as it is becoming a throw away society.

 
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