Window Cleaning Odds & Ends

They want a cleaner downtown Madison, USA: This year, PIC members said, their committee intends to forge ahead and develop strategies to improve, beautify and revitalize Madison’s Downtown Historic Business District. The PIC noted it has been working on ways to persuade merchants and landlords to take greater pride in the community by improving the overall look of the downtown district. “We strive for cleaner sidewalks and storefronts, and better maintenance of our beautiful historic buildings,” said Stephen Whitehorn, co-chairman of the PIC and himself a Madison landlord. “Not only will a better appearance attract more shoppers, but we feel it will attract other businesses to Madison, too,” Whitehorn said. “Our goal is to have a beautiful, busy and thriving downtown.” Window-washing and merchant street sweeping events are also being planned.

USA: Titus Anderson has opened Squeegee Squad, a professional window cleaning franchise, in the Alexandria lakes area. He was an apprentice with the headquarters in the Twin Cities for one year prior to starting the residential and commercial window washing in Alexandria. Since 1999, more than 7,000 satisfied homeowners and builders have chosen Squeegee Squad as their trusted neighborhood window cleaner. Anderson can be reached at http://www.squeegeesquad.com/.

Windows, glazed areas and thermal efficiency, Australia: Builders are well aware of the regulations underpinning thermal efficiency standards, but it is still important to know how different specifications are determined and what the most important rules of thumb are when designing or assessing a commercial or residential building. Steve Ketzer from Viridian (formerly Pilkington and DMS Glass.) , says windows and glazed areas are of fundamental importance to the quality of a building’s insulation characteristics. Critical elements are as follows: Width of spacer in double glazing: a 6mm space is adequate, but 12–16mm maximises the insulation of the unit. Typically, a 12mm air gap is 10% better than a 6mm gap. Types of window frame: to achieve 5 Star and more, specification of energy efficient frames will lower U values significantly. Type of glass in window: tinted glass will lower the Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC), but not the U value. Low-E on surface 3 will typically lower the U value by up to 20%. In double glazing, the outside of the outer panel is surface 1, the inside of the outer panel is 2, the outward-facing side of the internal panel is 3, and the face that faces the interior of the room is 4. By having the Low-E coating on 3 rather than 4, the coating is protected from air movement and also from any potentially harmful cleaning. It can also better reflect some of the solar radiation that hits the window. Gas fill in double glazing: using argon rather than air can improve the U value by 10 - 15%. Type of spacer: selecting the appropriate spacer will improve conductivity and thermal efficiency of the window.

USA: Traditional cleaning services are expanding, and they have a new option for insurance coverage that is keeping up with their growth. NIP Programs has introduced MaintenancePro®, a customizable insurance program for the facility cleaning and maintenance services industry. The program targets janitorial and light maintenance segments of the industry, including janitorial services, indoor and outdoor maintenance, window cleaning, and carpet and upholstery cleaners. Both commercial and residential cleaning and maintenance businesses are covered through MaintenancePro.

Canada: Local celebs recall humble first summer jobs: We have been talking to local personalities and asking them to share their first job experiences and to share the lessons learned from their humble beginnings. Stephen Brunet is a retired teacher who's known today as the mayor of Bathurst, now serving his second term. He said his first jobs as a student were at a family-owned auto junk yard and at the Eaton's department store as a window washer.

Duluth, USA: Greg Poe, 54, got his pilot’s license at 19. That was after he worked for two years as a window washer, freight mover and carpenter’s assistant to save the $2,000 he needed to pay for his training. Poe, of Boise, Idaho, became fixated with flying as a child. “When I was a kid in the ’60s, the space program was just getting going and it really captured my imagination,” Poe said. “I was just fascinated.” Poe made the jump to a professional stunt pilot when he was 38. This year, he will fly in 22 air shows. “It’s one of those things where you wake up and realize how lucky you are,” Poe said. “I’m a 54-year-old child.” Poe flies a Fagen MX2 that will be running on ethanol when he performs this weekend.

USA: Serving & preserving: At 85, he's lost a step or two along the way and he walks with the measured pace of someone up in years. But just as telling in any explanation of his deliberate gait is the dignity of a man who has little to prove after more than 70 years of service. First as a child, then as an adult and for many years as a venerated elder, Parker has worked at the historic downtown Hampton church longer than anyone else on record. He started by washing windows and scrubbing floors, then moved up to cutting grass and digging graves before taking on the demanding responsibilities of St. John's sexton. He said, 'Are you going to listen and do what you're told?' and I said, 'Sure,' " Parker recalls. "I went from dusting pews to scrubbing floors and washing windows. I washed every window in the parish house inside and out and then I'd go over to the church and wash every window there, including the stained glass. I climbed up and down all over the place on those ladders." Full Interview here.

Window cleaners win contract gains in MINNEAPOLIS - Just two days after 46 of 48 window cleaner members of Service Employees International Union Local 26 authorized their bargaining team to call a strike, they reached settlement on a new two-year contract. The window cleaners unit unanimously ratified the contract April 28 with Columbia, Marsden, and MSI. The agreement:• Provides an immediate pay raise for journeymen with another guaranteed raise January 1, 2009. • Reduces health insurance costs. Employee cost for single coverage dropped to $25 per month July 1 from as high as $210 previously. Family coverage dropped to $400 per month from as high as $600 previously. With these changes, the employer health insurance contribution will increase from $260 per month to as much as $500 per month. • Increases employer pension contributions, disability pay, and life insurance.Local 26, which also represents building janitors and security officers, reached landmark contracts for those workers last year and earlier this year. Previously: Workers who hang from skyscrapers, cleaning windows on some of the area’s largest and tallest buildings, are seeking union representation. Employees at MGS Professional Building Maintenance on Tuesday presented owner Michael Sweat with cards showing that a majority of the company’s workforce want to be represented by Service Employees International Union Local 26. Window cleaners are a small but significant part of Local 26, which represents primarily janitors and security guards, Salmonen said. He works at MSI, a unionized window cleaning company that employs about the same number of workers as MGS. The two largest window cleaning companies in the Twin Cities – Columbia Building Services, Inc., and Marsden Building Maintenance are also unionized. But many smaller companies, such as Minneapolis-based MGS, are not. “They have guys doing the exact kind of high rise, rappelling work as we do, but they’re getting $10 or $12 dollars an hour,” Salmonen said. “We’re around $20 with the union. And they have no medical whatsoever there, no retirement, no anything.” Another issue in the organizing is safety, he said. While union window cleaners go through a two-year apprenticeship program, non-union companies often send workers up on tall buildings with little training. MGS cleans windows at many private and public buildings in the Twin Cities, including the College of St. Catherine, Court International and Kellogg Square in St. Paul, and Butler Square, Hilton Hotel, Mill City Museum, Federal Courthouse and University of Minnesota parking ramps in Minneapolis. The window cleaners want Sweat to voluntarily recognize their union based on the fact that the majority of workers have signed cards, rather than go through a lengthy National Labor Relations Board election process, Salmonen said. The workers will follow up Tuesday’s action to make sure Sweat meets with them, he said, and “we want to make sure it’s a meeting at a time that his employees can all attend.”

Tips help keep your home sparkling clean, grime free by Ed Madan (pictured): Number 5. Fly spots: Sometimes you see fly spots on window. Rubbing alcohol will take them right off. 6. Cleaning window sheers: A great way to clean them is fill your bathtub with warm water, drop in several denture tablets and let the sheers sit overnight. You’ll be surprised how clean they will get.

U.K.Window cleaner Rob Malden was living in a caravan in his garden until Tuesday this week, when repair work to his home was finally complete. Water invaded his home in Church Lane, Three Mile Cross, last year – despite the four foot wall around his house. He said: “Living in a caravan is not ideal at all. Most of my belongings are still in storage because you can’t fit in everything from a three-bedroom house into a tiny caravan.” In the aftermath of the flooding, Mr Malden had difficulty contacting his insurer Norwich Union. It then took a further three weeks before a loss adjuster assessed the damage, during which time he stayed with his daughter in Bracknell.

And finally in Australia: The largest giant squid from Australian waters, close to the biggest ever found, is on the menu for a public dissection, then a rough reassembly. Nature lovers and the morbidly curious turn up as much as two hours early, and some hold children on shoulders. "We'd just like to treat it with some dignity. This is not going to be some kind of splatter-fest," museum squid expert Dr Mark Norman says. The immature female squid would have been about 12m long. It was caught in fishing nets in June, raised from 550m and put on ice intact, minus a few tentacles. Dr Norman says it is the best and freshest giant squid he's tackled, and took three painstaking days to thaw. Lucia Greenhatch, 6, is in the front row. "I liked it when they pulled everything out." "The male has a 1 1/2m penis it uses like a nail gun," Dr Norman explains. They are cannibalistic, so mating rapidly and escaping is a very good idea for the men.
They are safe, though, from human consumption. "If we ate this squid, it would taste like window cleaner."