Window Cleaning Buckets & More

Window Cleaning Resource have just realised another edition of Window Cleaning Nation, it can be viewed in the highlighted links. Joining up may be option to watch - you won't regret it! Another video from 'Sanchez' where he shows you a choice of buckets & how that discarded havana on the way to the job, leads to action.

Here's a wheeled bucket that can handle rough terrain. Roll over grass , gravel and bumpy surfaces easily. You can zip along and stop quickly without spilling a drop with its self-leveling feature. It has a long graceful handle so you can be relaxed as you move from window to window. It doesn't take up much room when stowed away either.

The French researchers have developed a technique for replicating the microscopic surface of the insects' wings, which repel water and dirt. Minute waffle-like structures on the wing make it difficult for water droplets to spread out, and as a result they roll off, taking dirt with them. New Scientist magazine reported that experts at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Aubervilliers have found a cheap and effective way of reproducing the complex surface. A silicon-based liquid polymer is poured over an actual butterfly's wing and allowed to dry. The solidified polymer is then peeled off and turned into a mould which is used to make films just 900 nanometres (nine millionths of a millimetre). A window can then be made to repel water and dirt by layering it with these films. As a result, the drops roll off, and they take dirt with them. This makes the surfaces ideal as the basis for self-cleaning windows and windshields. In the past creating such surfaces was tough because it means creating a template using lithographic techniques usually reserved for chip making. This makes it costly and slow, and limits the size of surfaces that can be produced, said Christophe Peroz at the centre. I FEEL SORRY FOR THE BUTTERFLY!

How to Conform to the Work at Height Regulations this Christmas: Since being launched in 2005 to provide ladder safety guidelines, The Working at Height Regulations have caused a lot of confusion, with employers baffled on how they should be applied or whether ladders are banned altogether. To clear the misunderstanding, storage and access equipment specialists Action Storage is offering free advice to public sector and commercial organisations on the use of ladders, stepladders and scaffold towers to help them conform to the regulations this Christmas. “What every organisation needs to be clear on is that the Working at Height Regulations doesn’t ban the use of ladders,” said Action Storage MD Tom Brialey, “It simply advises that alternative methods should be used whenever possible. Otherwise a risk assessment needs to be conducted to check that the ladder will be used for less than 30 minutes and poses a low risk.” With falls the main cause of death in the workplace and 1200 ladder related major injuries every year, employers have a responsibility to ensure their employees know how to use a ladder safely. This includes ensuring ladders are in good conditions; employees know how to use them safely and are using the right ladder for the job.
Ladders fall into three classifications:• Class 1(BS2037 & BS1129) – Industrial ladders: provide support for vertical loads of up to 175 kg (27.5 stones) and are suitable for a high frequency of usage in industrial environments• Class 2 (BS EN-131) - Trade/light industry: medium duty ladders for relative low frequency and safe conditions. Load capacity of up to 150 kg (23.5 stones)• Class 3 (BS2037 & BS1129) – Domestic ladders: suitable for infrequent use and for carrying weights of up to 125 kg (19.5 stones)
Organisations can contact Action Storage by email or on its unique, free helpline for advice on choosing the most suitable access and handling equipment for their particular task.Action Storage also offers the following guidelines on using its range of ladders, stepladders and scaffold towers safely and with the minimum risk:• Regular equipment inspections should be conducted to ensure the brackets, steps and joints on a ladder are secure and reliable• If there is a possible risk of electric shock a fibreglass ladder should be used because of its isolating properties, and it should always be kept dry and clean• Steel ladders are heavier and more durable than aluminium ladders, which makes them more suitable for longer term and repeated use• Never stand a ladder on boxes, bricks or any surface which is unstable to gain height• Allow at least an additional one metre beyond the top rung you’ll be standing on in order to ensure a handhold at all times. Since they were launched, The Work at Height Regulations have led to council’s banning workers from putting up Christmas decorations and window cleaners being turned away from office blocks because of fears of falling foul of the rules. However, Action Storage aims to dispel some of the confusion this Christmas and assist public sector and commercial organisations to conform to the regulations, whilst also ensuring they’re using ladders and access equipment safely and with the minimum risk to their employees.
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North Shields, UK pub raided by man with shotgun; A GUNMAN was on the run today after threatening staff and customers during a raid on a pub. The raider, armed with a shotgun, burst into the Sir Colin Campbell pub in North Shields, last night. The pub on Saville Street West was targeted as it started filling with regulars at around 6pm. Robert Nye, a window cleaner from nearby Spence Terrace, was with his brother Chris, both 19. He said: “We were playing pool when this guy burst in with tights over his face. He was wearing a plastic nose and a baseball cap. “At first I thought it was a joke. Then he pointed a gun at the barmaid and said: ‘Fill it up’. He was getting agitated. “He was demanding all the money they had. The poor girl looked terrified but she opened the till. Then he pointed the gun at this old man, a regular in the pub. He looked really frightened. “He just kept the gun pointed at the old man and said: ‘Shut up before I shoot the lot of you’.” His brother, also a window cleaner from Spence Terrace, added: “It was absolutely terrifying. “The barmaid was hysterical. We’ve never been caught in anything like this before. “You don’t expect this to happen when you’ve just come out for a few beers and a game of pool midweek. “He was in there for a good five minutes. He took all the money, including the silver, and then ran out.”

Elvis’s Christmas special, Islington: ‘The King’ joins celebrities at Camden Passage lights switch-on: It was a case of old meets new at Camden Passage on Saturday as Elvis, Jaime Winstone and the antiques traders celebrated the annual Christmas lights switch-on. Actress Jaime, who lives in Islington, was joined by actor boyfriend Alfie Allen, son of writer and comedian Keith and brother of singer Lily, as she helped illuminate the passage. Islington Mayor Stefan Kasprzyk praised the Georgian feel of Camden Passage and age-old fixture Elvis – window cleaner Vic Joy – was there to celebrate.

Finally some good advice: A clean, well-maintained office is essential to any legitimate business, not only to impress your clients and customers, but also because an office needs to meet certain health code regulations. If your office does not have regular staff experienced in business cleaning tasks, your working conditions could become very unhygienic and unpleasant. Cleaning is a very unglamorous task, and there are many things to consider. Some of the areas that need to be tackled are floors and carpets, drapes and upholstery, stains, bathrooms, glass and other furniture and garbage disposal.It difficult to find reliable janitorial staff who are good at every little aspect of this activity. Most businesses would rather not deal with low-paid labor. The best solution is to outsource these tasks to a contractor whose staff is experienced in dealing with them efficiently and economically. A good business cleaning firm would provide a wide range of janitorial services that make your office maintenance easier. Some of these services include:Window Polishing: This is hard work and should ideally be done by a professional who possesses all the proper equipment for this task including a squeegee. The cleaning of external windows in particular involves some risk to life and limb, and should only be handled by an expert.

Lambeth rent-hike is 'crushing blow': HARD-UP council tenants face a rent-hike timebomb that will see bills rise by an average of at least £620-per-year because a bungling housing department is in financial crisis. Labour-run Lambeth plans to increase rents by an average of £12-per-week from April 1 next year in a desperate bid to plug a deficit of up to £15million. But it could be as much as £15-per-week and comes on top of a seven per cent rise this year.
Details of the proposals have emerged in the council’s draft budget proposals for 2009/2010. The council also looks set to ramp up tenant service charges for caretaking, estate management, window cleaning and communal lighting by a further five per cent. Every tenant in the borough’s 30,000 council-owned homes will be worse off under the proposals.

Organised black market for illegal migrant workers, Malaysia: Everywhere you go and everywhere you see, the foreign invasion of migrant workers pursuing menial jobs Malaysians don’t want to get paid for anymore is startling and pervasive. It has been so since this country decided to lurch towards industrialisation, commerce and knowledge. The foreign invasion has spread to literally every nook and cranny in the peninsula where labour-intensive jobs, the ones that demand workers to profusely sweat under the sun, kneel and crawl over dirt and muck, and dig and scrape until blisters form and the back strains. Malaysians have long dumped jobs that requires floor sweeping, window cleaning, toilet flushing, dish cleaning and leftovers clearing – the pay is terrible, unless it is a job frying fries and grilling burgers at the multinationals of McDonald’s and Burger King where the money is sweet enough for younger Malaysians to ignore any little snobbery of status consciousness. For most Malaysians, other than the ones with the deep felt paranoia of being overwhelmed by foreigners, the presence of these migrant workers are shrugged off nonchalantly as a non-threat and even welcomed. If Malaysians don’t want these low-paying jobs, the foreigners are more than welcome to it. It is a cycle that every developed nation has experienced – Latin Americans and Mexicans to America, and Indians, Pakistanis and Middle Easterners to Britain and Europe.