Window Cleaning News & Video

Cleaning up: Pictured, window cleaner Peter Kloster has been kept busy in recent days trying to keep dust from the control tower window at Cairns airport. For the first time in 16 years, Peter Kloster's normally spectacular view of Cairns has vanished. Washing the windows of the 10-storey high control tower at Cairns international airport every week, the owner of Curryup Window Cleaning has never seen anything like the dust storm that has surrounded the city since Thursday. "I've been up there in 40 knot winds, but last Friday I could barely see the ocean, let alone Green Island or anything else like that,’’ Mr Kloster said. While he was surprised at how little dust gathered on the windows of the lofty control tower - possibly because of low humidity - Mr Kloster says the window cleaning business had certainly been booming in the past week, and it was likely to continue. "There has definitely been plenty of people out there who don’t want the dust messing their windows," he said. Yesterday, Cairns saw the tail end of its second dust storm in less than a week, a strange phenomenon that was brought north from South Australia by a surface trough.

Brother cleans up dirty window drama -Manawatu NZ: Palmerston North's Yatai restaurant no longer has dirty windows after the brother of the man who duped its owners out of $120 returned to finish the job. Yatai co-owner Barbara Taniyama contacted the Manawatu Standard last week after a man went to the Featherston St restaurant to clean the windows, but left many dirty or covered in brown streaks. He still collected the $120 from Mrs Taniyama's husband, as she was out running errands at the time. Mrs Taniyama was unable to complain about the cleaner, who left the name Smith's Window Cleaners, as she was supplied with a fake number. However, Carl Smith, who works under the same name, went to Yatai on Friday to redo the windows. He had intended on doing the first job but said his brother had done it before he could get there. Upon seeing the Manawatu Standard article, a shocked Mr Smith immediately called Mrs Taniyama to apologise for his brother's shoddy work. "I've apologised to Barbara in respect to that, because she paid for a service that was not done properly," he said. "I've only just started up but I've had other clients and those people have been satisfied." Mr Smith said he hoped the matter had been settled and would love to take on Yatai as a regular customer. Mrs Taniyama said she was more than happy with the final job, even giving Mr Smith food to take away. See initial story to understand this article - here.

Rooftop Anchor, Inc. Announces new Rooftop Safety Product Line: Rooftop Anchor, Inc., engineers, manufactures and installs solutions for commercial rooftop safety. Rooftop Anchor, Inc. announced the introduction of their new rooftop safety product line. The new products are designed to provide certified anchor points on commercial rooftops for workers to tie-off to while working on the roofing surface, or off the roof on a suspended scaffold or on rope descent equipment. In addition, Rooftop Anchor will provide engineered horizontal cable systems, davits, monorail, guardrail and a superior anchor point for guy wire support for antennas and other rooftop structures.
"Our product development and distribution network has extensive commercial rooftop experience, and we have found that a majority of commercial roofs lack suitable anchor points for window cleaning crews, maintenance teams and other rooftop contractors," said Nate Sargent, President of Rooftop Anchor, Inc. "Our products are designed to meet ANSI/IWCA I-14.1 and OSHA safety regulations and can easily install in new building construction or as a retrofit on an existing commercial roof" added Kynan Wynne, Vice President of Rooftop Anchor, Inc.

The Next Big Thing Is Really Small: Nanotechnology is emerging from the labs, creating new markets and disrupting others. Nanotechnology is a branch of engineering which is concerned with manipulating materials at the atomic and molecular levels (the "nanoscale") and constructing devices at the molecular level. Whilst we're waiting for those world-changing applications that science-fiction has promised us, such as nanoscale robots which scrub your arteries clean or rewire your brain so that you can speak Sumerian, some everyday products have been improved by nanotechnology and are starting to appear in the marketplace.
Fed up with cleaning your windows? The glass manufacturer Pilkington makes a self-cleaning glass called ActivTM where a special coating interacts with sunlight to break down dirt and then by reducing the surface tension of any water that falling onto the window, causing the water to fall off the window taking the dirt with it. Some of the newer water-repellent fabrics incorporate nanotechnology in the form of a coating which contains carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes restrict the surface area that is available for any water to adhere to, causing the water to fall off.

Full Video below: the full interview with the guys from North East England, Tony Earnshaw & how they got their investment from the Dragons Den investor, Duncan Bannatyne. The video also shows their investor spending a day out & helping with a spot of water fed pole-ing. Also in a previous blog - see here.

A worker cleaning a Siemens-made Sapsan train. Its top operating speed is 217 miles per hour. This December, high-speed trains designed by the German conglomerate and adapted for Russian winters will ply the rails between St. Petersburg and Moscow. But Siemens hopes their final destination will be the last laggard of the high-speed age: the United States. For years, businesspeople and politicians have dreamed about America entering the high-speed era, but Amtrak has been plagued by budget and service problems and the closest Americans have come to high speed is the Acela, which rarely runs at what Europeans call high speed. Now Siemens and its competitors are hoping all that has changed. The economic stimulus passed by Congress in April includes a five-year, $13 billion high-speed rail program. Siemens is one of four makers of high-speed trains, none of them based in the United States, that hopes to take advantage of it.

ForeignTRADEX.com, publisher of over 34 buying guides for the industrial community, announced today the launch of its new on-line directory of new and used Construction Heavy Equipment. ForeignTRADEX launched a website selling a variety of industrial cleaning supplies and janitorial equipment which has since grown to thousands of offerings, according to Bailey. The directory includes mops, window washing equipment, industrial vacuums, steam cleaners, floor buffers, carpet cleaners, cleaning chemicals, scrubbers, janitorial supplies and other cleaning products. More information is available on the ForeignTRADEX website. ForeignTRADEX is a US-European Industrial Trade Portal designed to connect American and European exporters and importers of industrial products. The site includes offerings for a broad variety of industrial supplies, equipment and machinery as well as manufacturing services from leading companies in the United States, Canada and Western Europe.

Lotus Plant-Inspired Dust-Busting Shield to Protect Space Gear: A plant that lives along muddy waterways in Asia has inspired a NASA team to develop a special coating to prevent dirt and even bacteria from sticking to and contaminating the surfaces of spaceflight gear. Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are developing a transparent coating that prevents dirt from sticking in the same way a lotus plant sheds water — work begun through collaboration with Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems, Linthicum, Md., and nGimat Corporation, Atlanta, Ga. Although a lotus leaf appears smooth, under a microscope, its surface contains innumerable tiny spikes that greatly reduce the area on which water and dirt can attach. "If you splash lotus leaves with water, it just beads up and rolls off, indicating they have a special hydrophobic or water-repelling ability," said Eve Wooldridge, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project Contamination and Coatings Lead at Goddard. "This ability also prevents dust from adhering to the leaves."
This special quality is what the NASA team is attempting to replicate to prevent dirt from accumulating on the surfaces of spacesuits, scientific instruments, robotic rovers, solar array panels and other hardware used to gather scientific data or carry out exploratory activities on other objects in the solar system. The trick is developing a coating that can withstand the harsh space environment.
The coating was originally developed to reduce the need for window cleaning. Made from silica, zinc oxide, and other oxides, its potential uses on Earth are limitless. It could be applied to car windshields, camera lenses, and eyeglasses — almost anywhere a need exists to repel dirt. Understanding the potential, Northrop Grumman teamed with nGimat to find more applications for the coating technology. The pair ultimately turned to Goddard for its expertise in making equipment ready to endure the harsh space environment.

Conman targeting elderly Bristol residents: A bogus window cleaner is targeting elderly victims in the Bristol area. There have been a string of deception offences in the last few weeks – all of which police believe were committed by the same callous criminal. The stocky white man in his early 40s usually asks residents to pay for a year's work, then never returns to do it. Eileen Cainey, 76, was one woman who thwarted the conman. On Sunday, September 13, she was surprised to see a caller at her home in Park Grove, Westbury-on-Trym, saying he was her new window cleaner. She said: "He said 'I've got your old window cleaner's round and if you give me £60 I'll come back until Christmas.' He asked me if I wanted the front windows cleaned and I said 'no', but he did them anyway. "But he didn't have a ladder or anything, he just started doing them with a little spray and a cloth. "It was a Sunday and I thought it was a bit strange so I went to make sure I'd bolted the back door. When I opened the kitchen door he was standing in the lean-to. "He couldn't speak properly and he was shaking like a leaf, but he asked if I wanted the inside windows done. "I said 'no' and he went. He didn't steal anything. The strange thing was the next day my regular window cleaner called."
Grandmother Mrs Cainey has lived in the house with her husband Ivor, 80, for 33 years. But she was alone on the day in question and said she will always be on her guard now. "It does unnerve you," she added. "In future, I will put the chain on and look through my little spy hole whenever I answer the door." Mrs Cainey said the suspect was white, had fair hair and was wearing a pink and purple shirt. In other incidents the offender has been described as in his 40s, with tattoos on both forearms wearing a large watch on his right wrist.
An elderly woman from Claverham lost £2,500 after her bank card was stolen in a walk-in theft and used in transactions, most of which were in Bristol. Acting DS Sam Donati, who is part of the Doorstep Crime Team, said: "We believe one man is responsible for these crimes. I would advise residents never to agree to purchase goods and services on the doorstep. "Always rely on references and personal recommendations and satisfy yourself that this person is genuine. Obtain a written quote for any jobs before work starts. I would also advise calling the company to ask if the caller is a genuine employee." Victims or witnesses should call the Doorstep Crime Team on 0845 4567000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

Nicely produced video this one from Powerwash Limited in the Midlands.

Another way of cleaning - Dry Ice! Produced by Envirotek Solutions using blast methods to achieve the desired results.

And finally..."Clin," a window spray ad'. Two videos on a humourous note.