Tallest Cherry Picker & Other Window Cleaning News

Bradford firm on the up: A specialist window-cleaners is extending its reach after taking delivery of the UK’s tallest cherry-picker. Bosses at Blade Access, in Bowling Back Lane, West Bowling, Bradford, will use the £600,000, 230ft Wumag access platform for “extreme window cleaning”. It will scale tall buildings across West Yorkshire. And it will enable work to be carried out in the environmental technology sector. Jamie Bairstow, 29, who co-founded the company six years ago with Mark Bell, bought the cherry-picker from Sky King, a specialist company in Leicestershire. Mr Bairstow said: “When we originally formed the window-cleaning business, we had to hire out platforms. Then we got a fire engine platform and now we’ve got the biggest cherry-picker in the UK. It looks like we’re going up in the world!” Pictured: From the left, co-founder Mark Bell, area sales manager Martin Cowley and co-founder Jamie Bairstow.

Tired of hearing people passively ask what's being done about downtown's vacant storefronts, a small group of volunteers has taken it upon themselves to bring curb appeal to the area's commercial real estate. This summer, the dark and dusty store windows that dot Center Street and Merchants Row will be replaced with colorful cloth backdrops, furniture and theater prop displays, unconventional art and more than a few flocks of paper cranes. "We're a small group of volunteers who are just very interested in seeing the beauty of Rutland shine through," said Carol Tashie, of the group City SEEDs — formerly known as Farm to City — which promotes socially engaged economic development.
"We thought we could take advantage of the fact that those windows offer a frame for getting people to locate their businesses downtown," she said. With the permission of the property owners, all of whom have been receptive to the idea, City SEEDs has already spruced up three window fronts, including the former Army Navy store on Center Street and the old Book King on Merchants Row, and hopes to have all decorated by early August, said Steve Eddy, another member of the group. Eddy is the former owner of Book King, but doesn't own the now-vacant space he formerly occupied.

Wow is owned and operated by Andrew Kidd, whose slogan is: “Windows that make you say, ‘WOW!’” He makes the world say Wow! in Burien, Normandy Park and Seattle. We don’t know for sure, but our research reveals that back in school Andrew’s nickname was “Streak Free.”
Do you run a business? Well, if you do, Andrew is announcing a $30 “Special for Businesses” which includes two windows and a door, cleaned inside and outside, for just $30. Wow! And for homeowners, be prepared – it’ll be like your windows changing from analog to High Def. Throwing a party for the 4th? The last thing on your To Do list is always washing the windows. “Allow us to do it for you,” Andrew says. “And call me about Senior Discounts.” A new view courtesy Andrew and his crew, who like to say: “Give us a call. We’ll come see you so your customers can too!” Oh, we were just kidding about the “Streak Free” nickname, but Andrew really is a lifelong Burien resident. He loves it here. Wow window washing.

Racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart received a special 70th birthday present yesterday - the freedom of his childhood home. And when he visitied his former schools in Dumbarton, he opened his heart on his battle with dyslexia. At Dumbarton Academy, he told fellow dyslexia sufferer and Formula One fan Harry Watters, 14, he could "be the next Lewis Hamilton". "Einstein was dyslexic and if I hadn't won three world championships, I would be the world's best window cleaner - seriously.

Ecover, the world-leading pioneers of ecological cleaning are packing their most powerful punch yet with a brand new range of hard surface cleaning products that put their competitors to shame. While they’re even tougher than petrochemical products on household grime, they’re brilliantly gentle on both the environment and your skin.
Guaranteed to leave your home sparkling clean, this hard-working range harnesses the power of nature through pioneering ingredients called Eco-Surfactants1. Developed exclusively by Ecover’s ecological innovators, these new ingredients mean the new range is proven to clean as well as – or better than - the UK’s leading conventional brands2.
The range consists of two new products: Ecover Power Cleaner and Ecover Window & Glass Cleaner; as well as two new formulations of household favourites, Ecover All Purpose Cleaner (previously known as Ecover Multi-Surface Cleaner) and Ecover Multi Surface Spray Cleaner (previously known as SquirtEco).
Ecover Window & Glass Cleaner – RRP £2.69 (500ml) - this brand new product can be used on windows, mirrors, glass and chrome. Up against Mr Muscle Window Cleaner, it took victory on performance and finish, and was described as ‘efficient’, ‘very effective’ and ‘easy to use’ in consumer research.

Travellers leave dangerous rubbish in their wake: A Shefford Woodlands man has been left with skips full of rubbish, including piles of asbestos, after travellers set up home in his field. Charles Byam-Cook, who lives at Oakhanger Park, said that more than a dozen caravans and camper vans had converged on his property after cutting a hole in a fence. Mr Byam-Cook said that they spent more than a week on his land before finally moving on of their own accord, on Sunday, June 14. However, he has now been left with a huge clean-up operation after discovering that they had left heaps of debris. “I have had to get two skips to clear it all and one especially for all the asbestos,” said Mr Byam-Cook. “There were empty bottles, beer cans, household rubbish and old gas cylinders – but what was more tiresome was all the other rubbish they left.” Mr Byam-Cook said that this included old doors and window frames and wood with nails sticking out of it. He added that among the rubbish left he had also found two boxes of flyers, offering cleaning and roofing services.

Top 10 Michael Jackson moments: Number 3. Bubbles
Bubbles was Jackson's favourite pet chimpanzee whilst he lived at the Neverland ranch. In out-takes from Martin Bashir's documentary, Bubbles is said to have used Jackson's private toilet and completed basic household duties such as dusting and window cleaning aided by other chimpanzees. It was rumoured that Bubbles was banned from the Neverland premises having punched Jackson in the face. A statue of Bubbles and Jackson can be found at the Alstrup Fearney Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo Norway, having been purchased for $5.6 million by an ananymous buyer in New York in 1991.

Powerful software to make your cleaning business more efficient. Now you can easily record and view info on every cleaning job you have done: floor care, carpet care, self-employment, window washing, custodial training and many other areas related to the cleaning industry. You can use the scheduler to find the best fit by viewing dates, times and distance of other scheduled services to set an appointment for a customer. Each customer's history is stored and conveniently displayed on the customers main screen for ease of look up. This historical recount is complete and permanently stored with each customer for quick reference. It's perfect for workers to plan working hours so that the orders do not overlap with someone else and keep track of scheduled appointments. It'll store the information about clients, such as their address, telephone, email and comments. This modern and extremely handy program makes management a real pleasure. You can view the information about payments, daily income for any day at any moment when you need it. For those people, who work in Microsoft Outlook, it's possible to export data. Export of data is available to different formats: XLS, TXT, HTML, XML for its adaptation for other programs. In case of crashes or virus attacks, there is an auto backup function with a possibility to remove old archives automatically.

Newspapers tell window cleaners what to charge! If you hire a window washing service, the charge to wash 12 double-hung windows from the inside and exterior of a house will be $156. You can do the job for $16, the cost of the materials, and save a whopping 90 percent for your effort. Those materials include cleaning solution and a window squeegee and scrubber. You also need a stepladder, bucket and lint-free clean rags for washing and drying. Washing windows is a good two-person job that goes quickly when one worker cleans the exterior while the other cleans the inside.
Washing windows is a no-brainer if you have a single-story house. However, the job gets dicey if you have a two-story house. Unless you already have an extension ladder, consider washing the first-floor windows and hiring a service to wash the ones upstairs. You'll get the best results if you wash windows on a cloudy day because sunlight dries the glass quickly, which causes streaking. Pro cost: $156 - DIY cost: $16 - Pro time: 1.8 hrs, DIY time: 3.3 hrs, DIY savings: $140 - Percent saved: 90 Percent.

Couple celebrate 70 years of marriage: It's an anniversary which most people struggle to reach... 70 years of marriage. But for Bill Mitton, 99, and his wife Doris, 91, it was yet another extraordinary milestone in their extraordinary lives. The happy couple tied the knot three months before the outbreak of the Second World War, on June 24, 1939. And for the past 64 years, they have lived in the same house in Whitehall, where their family grew up. At the bungalow in Wineberry Close the pair celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary, surrounded by five generations of their family. Bill worked as a fireman during the war and then as a window cleaner for many years before going on to work for Crittall Windows in Brislington, until he retired at 65.

Angry leaseholders accuse Lambeth of "plucking figures out of the air" after service charges soar: Homeowners have accused Lambeth’s housing manager of giving them inflated bills for service contracts that do not exist in order to plug a financial black hole. Last week estimated service charge bills for 2009/10 dropped through the letterboxes of thousands of Lambeth Council properties leaseholders. In many cases, estimated charges for services such as heating and hot water more than doubled, adding hundreds of pounds to residents’ yearly bills. Other services - such as communal block cleaning costs and window-cleaning - have also rocketed. Leaseholder representatives say this is wrong as contracts for services on some estates have not been decided. One Herne Hill resident reported a jump in block cleaning costs from £35 in 2008/9 to an estimated £650 this year on his yearly bill.