I've been cleaning windows in high-rise buildings for about seven years. I was looking for a job back when I was 18 when I saw an ad in the newspaper seeking high-rise cleaners. I was a little afraid of heights back then, but I figured it would be a challenge. I tried it out and ended up liking it. Now, the higher the better. Four floors, 40 floors - it doesn't make any difference to me.
We begin the window-cleaning process by taking the elevator all the way up to the top floor. Then we go up to the roof, tie our ropes down and throw them over the side. Then we just rappel down. We sit on a little chair and wear a safety harness. My main tools are an 18-inch squeegee and mop. I have some 22-inch tools that come in handy for the bigger windows And for smaller windows we have what are called cut-ups - little four-inch mops and squeegees. The rest of it is trade secrets. Some of the buildings we clean are the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk's World Trade Center and a lot of hotels on the Oceanfront. A building the size of the Marriott takes two people two days to do while working steadily. We do what's called a "drop" to clean the glass. That's when you go straight down from the roof to the ground to clean a strip of windows. As soon as you're finished with a drop, you just come back up to the roof, move the ropes over and continue with another drop. You get kind of a rhythm going. You can knock buildings out pretty fast. While I'm up there, I think it's important to know exactly what can happen. So I look down, I look all around. It's possible to fall so you want to avoid that. Once, I was blown around the corner of the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel. I was taking holiday lights down because a hurricane was coming. It was really windy, and the wind kind of just whipped me around the corner, and it didn't let up for about five minutes. I was just stuck there, and I had to wait for it to die down before I could get back to the other side. Most high-rise windows are cleaned once a year, both outside and inside. I haven't seen many people cutting back their window cleanings now because they're trying to save money in this economy. Lately, everybody wants us to come real quick because they have an event going on. A lot of the Oceanfront hotels want their windows washed now because it's almost tourist season. So we want to get in there and get that done before they start getting busy. I've had curtains closed on me pretty fast as I've worked my way down buildings. Most people don't know it's actually really difficult to see in the windows from the outside. People may think we saw more than we did, so they panic. It's funny to see other people at work while we do our jobs. We'll look in an office building and be like, "Hey, they're lucky they're inside on a hot day." They'll look at us and be like, "They're lucky, they're outside on a nice day." Everybody just wants to switch places sometimes.
We begin the window-cleaning process by taking the elevator all the way up to the top floor. Then we go up to the roof, tie our ropes down and throw them over the side. Then we just rappel down. We sit on a little chair and wear a safety harness. My main tools are an 18-inch squeegee and mop. I have some 22-inch tools that come in handy for the bigger windows And for smaller windows we have what are called cut-ups - little four-inch mops and squeegees. The rest of it is trade secrets. Some of the buildings we clean are the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk's World Trade Center and a lot of hotels on the Oceanfront. A building the size of the Marriott takes two people two days to do while working steadily. We do what's called a "drop" to clean the glass. That's when you go straight down from the roof to the ground to clean a strip of windows. As soon as you're finished with a drop, you just come back up to the roof, move the ropes over and continue with another drop. You get kind of a rhythm going. You can knock buildings out pretty fast. While I'm up there, I think it's important to know exactly what can happen. So I look down, I look all around. It's possible to fall so you want to avoid that. Once, I was blown around the corner of the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel. I was taking holiday lights down because a hurricane was coming. It was really windy, and the wind kind of just whipped me around the corner, and it didn't let up for about five minutes. I was just stuck there, and I had to wait for it to die down before I could get back to the other side. Most high-rise windows are cleaned once a year, both outside and inside. I haven't seen many people cutting back their window cleanings now because they're trying to save money in this economy. Lately, everybody wants us to come real quick because they have an event going on. A lot of the Oceanfront hotels want their windows washed now because it's almost tourist season. So we want to get in there and get that done before they start getting busy. I've had curtains closed on me pretty fast as I've worked my way down buildings. Most people don't know it's actually really difficult to see in the windows from the outside. People may think we saw more than we did, so they panic. It's funny to see other people at work while we do our jobs. We'll look in an office building and be like, "Hey, they're lucky they're inside on a hot day." They'll look at us and be like, "They're lucky, they're outside on a nice day." Everybody just wants to switch places sometimes.
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