Window Cleaning News

Praise for window cleaners who rescued elderly woman from fire: Two window cleaners have been hailed as heroes for rescuing an elderly woman from flats. Lee Reardon, 25, and work-mate, Alfie Dunn, 23, leapt into action when they saw smoke coming from a window of St John's Court in Paignton yesterday afternoon. While Alfie climbed in through the first floor window and found Joan McMann, 82, in a smoke-filled room. Lee went in through the door, led her to safety and put out the chip pan fire. Mrs McMann said she felt like the 'luckiest person in Paignton' after being led to safety while firefighters hailed the pair as heroes. "Bless their hearts, those boys saved my life" she said.
Lee said: "We were cleaning the windows and noticed smoke coming out of one of the windows. My friend went through the window and found an old lady inside. "I went around the front and he opened the door for me. There was lots of smoke inside. We helped the lady out then I went back in, picked up a rug and put it over the fire. "It was a chip pan on the hob. I carried it out and then we brought the fire extinguisher in and put the rest out. "The lady was very happy but it was all instinctive and we didn't really think about it." Alfie, who works with Lee for SLR Window Cleaners, said: "The room was smoke filled and at first the old lady didn't want to come out.
"I unlocked the door for Lee and we helped her out. The firemen were there within five minutes and we went back to work." Mrs McCann said: "I had put a saucepan on the hob and had turned on the chip pan by accident. "The room was full of smoke and I didn't know what was going on until they arrived. "I want to thank them for saving me. I feel like the luckiest person in Paignton." Paignton fire station watch commander Roger Williams said he couldn't praise the pair enough for their bravery and quick actions. He added: "Without their actions and intervention the lady's flat would have been severely fire damaged and she could have been seriously injured. "I want to thank them on behalf of the service for doing a real community-spirited rescue. They didn't make a fuss, they just did what they thought was the right thing to do and then returned to work."

Papa Gianni is 89, but the music of his native Italy still lives deep within him, and so he must sing. Sing with all his heart. And what emerges from his throat is, in his own words, "a miracle." The voice is remarkably strong; it's the voice of a much younger man, a voice "that must be from God." Papa Gianni has no other explanation, but his voice received the highest of validations, from the great Luciano Pavarotti himself. He sang for Pavarotti in San Francisco in 1979, including one of the songs "The Maestro" loved most: "Nessun Dorma." That made it three performances within a 10-day span for this charismatic man who was born outside Trieste, Italy, and who immigrated to America in 1951.
"I came from a poor family," he said Sept. 12. "My papa was a fisherman. My mama was on her knees, scrubbing wood floors. There was no money to buy food. I went through a lotta, lotta, lotta things in my life." "I came to America because I lost my land. I was a refugee. From New York, I went to California, and worked in construction in Dana Point. My wife wanted to come to San Francisco. I had two kids, Gianfranco and Sofia. I became a window washer. God gave me the strength to go outside on 40, 60 stories."

From nature, robots: To a robot designer like Sangbae Kim, the animal kingdom is full of inspiration. "I always look at animals and ask why they are the way they are," says Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "As an engineer, looking at them and speculating is fascinating." While a graduate student at Stanford, Kim drew inspiration from the gecko to build a climbing robot, and he is now designing a running robot that mimics the movements of a cheetah. Such agile, fast-moving robots could perform military surveillance and search-and-rescue missions deemed too dangerous for humans to undertake. His Biomimetic Robotics Lab is one of several at MIT pursuing biologically inspired engineering. A team of mechanical engineers has built robotic fish, and materials scientists have designed moisture-collecting materials that mimic a beetle's shell.
When Kim and his colleagues at Stanford set out to build a climbing robot, at first they figured they needed to make the robot's feet sticky. However, they soon realized that very sticky feet can't detach very easily. Their approach shifted dramatically with the 2006 discovery, by Lewis and Clark College biologist Kellar Autumn, that geckos use a phenomenon called directional adhesion to stick to walls. "The gecko gave us a completely new perspective. Stickiness does not necessarily come from chemical composition; it can come from mechanical properties and geometry," says Kim. "The geometry enables strange phenomena such as directional adhesion, which sticks in only one direction."
The pads of a gecko's feet are covered with a forest of tiny hairs called setae, some of which are one-twentieth the width of a human hair. The setae, in turn, branch into hundreds of tiny smaller hairs called spatulae, which are about one-thousandth the width of a human hair. These hairs cling to surfaces using tiny molecular interactions known as van der Waals forces. Collectively, the forces are strong enough to support the gecko's weight as it scrambles up a vertical surface.
To demonstrate, Kim rummages around in a desk drawer in his office and pulls out a small rectangle of the gecko-inspired adhesive material, which resembles a tiny patch of blue Astroturf. A compact disc gently held against the horizontal surface attaches securely in one direction and then easily detaches in the opposite direction. The adhesive is covered with hairs made of rubber silicone, which are thicker than those on a gecko's paw (about four times thicker than a human hair). Because thicker hairs require smoother surfaces for adhesion, Stickybot can only climb extremely smooth surfaces like glass.
Kim and his colleagues, led by Stanford professor Mark Cutkosky, first demonstrated Stickybot in 2006, and Time magazine named it one of that year's best inventions. The paper describing the robot also won the 2008 Best Paper Award for the IEEE Transactions on Robotics. Potential applications for the stickybot technology include exterior repair of underwater oil pipelines and window washing. Kim also plans to start designing climbing equipment for humans using the directional adhesion technology.

The family of a severely disabled schoolboy born without a sense of danger is planning a potentially life-changing mission to the other side of the world. Keiran Buchan has Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes developmental delay. The 10-year-old has never spoken a word in his life, sleeps for just one hour each night and has difficulty walking. Because he has no perception of danger, he needs to be supervised and kept safe around the clock. All over his family home at Crimond, between Peterhead and Fraserburgh, cabinets, doors and appliances are fitted with safety locks and protective covers. Parents Neil and Linda say that if the front door is left open, Keiran is likely to wander out into the street. He will think nothing about playing with electrical sockets, picking up knives or exploring potentially hazardous household objects.
Sadly, there is no known cure for Angelman Syndrome and there is only a limited amount that therapies can do. Window cleaner Mr Buchan, of The Corse, Crimond, is organising a skydive to raise money for the trip and also for charity Assert (the Angelman Syndrome Support Education Research Trust). On Saturday, October 3, he will jump from an aircraft 8,000ft above St Andrews. For more information on Mr Buchan’s sky dive, log on to "Just Giving."

Businesses, homes, hotels and more keep demand high for building cleaning workers: Outlook: Employment of building cleaning workers is expected to increase 14 percent over the 2006-16 decade, which is faster than the average for all occupations.
Pay: Building cleaning workers in the Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma area earned a median wage of $28,720 in 2008.
The job: Building cleaning workers -- including janitors, maids, housekeeping cleaners, window washers and rug shampooers -- keep office buildings, hospitals, stores, apartment buildings, hotels and private residences clean, sanitary and in good condition.
Training/licensing: Most building cleaning workers have a high school diploma or less and mainly learn their skills on the job or in informal training sessions sponsored by their employers.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Angie’s List: Gutter cleaning tips - INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Gutters are among the most visible parts of any home. But few homeowners take the time to really look at them. Angie Hicks of Angie's List said failing to look at your gutters now could cost you plenty later. "Gutters aren't just about looks," she said. David Rhodes of Weather Shield, an Indianapolis company that installs and repairs gutters said they are far more important than that. "The gutters are designed to get the water away from your house," he said. "The water is the enemy of your home, so they are really essential.”
Essential and even brand new ones require some maintenance. It’s important to make sure your gutters retain their proper pitch and clean them out twice a year, once in the fall again in the spring. Rhodes said, "A good idea is to go out when it’s raining, or take a hose to the roof and check and see if it's flowing properly. Look out the window; see if water is collecting in the gutter. That will tell you if it's mispitched or clogged," Rhodes said. Hicks said getting gutters cleaned is important, but she said think twice before you decide to do it yourself. "Many people think that gutter cleaning is a do it yourself job. But it actually can be pretty dangerous. We want to remind people that there are more injuries related to falling off a ladder than there are with any other do it yourself project," said Hicks.
Aluminum gutters are the most common residential choice. They are the least expensive. But you still need to keep them clean. Each of the other choices has its pluses and minuses said Rhodes. "Steel seems to rust with time. Copper oxidizes, gets discolored. Vinyl will crack once it's been through the winter months if it's not properly cleaned. The aluminum is a lifetime product," said Rhodes. Mother Nature can pose problems for any kind of gutter. Rhodes said gutter covers are a good idea. But, he said gutters still need to be cleaned even with covers. Hicks said if a company promises that if you buy their cover you'll never need to clean your gutters again, be sure to get it in writing.

John Denham MP Visits Harlow Town Centre: Pictured from left: Cllr Eddie Johnson, John Denham and Bill Rammell MP. THE Secretary of State for communities, John Denham MP, visited Harlow yesterday (Wednesday) to see how the town is using Government funding to tackle the effects of the recession on its high streets. Last month Harlow Council was given £52000 in funding to reduce the negative impact that empty shops have on the high street.
To see how that money has been put to use, Mr Denham was shown round the Window Works initiative which has brightened previously boarded up shops using displays by local artists. The Council plans to spend the grant on extending the Window Works displays to more empty shops, giving the pedestrianised areas a deep clean, ahead of an extensive Christmas promotional campaign to increase local trading. Mr Denham said: "The downturn has hurt many high streets across England but Harlow is fighting the impact of the downturn by putting the empty shop funding Government gave them in last month to good use brightening up unused shops, cleaning up the streets to attract back shoppers for the Christmas push. "Harlow has been leading the way on this and I was impressed by what I saw. I hope the extra money will help them to continue the good work."

DCSS accepts bid for building: ALBANY - It was something they don't often do, but Dougherty County School System Building & Grounds Committee opted to recommend using the third lowest bidder for a project at Friday morning's meeting. The rare move followed after minority businesses Robie Thompson and Tandem Contracting turned in bids of $7,990 and $8,400, respectively, for the pressure washing and window cleaning of the downtown Administration Building.
The bids were about $14,000 below the third lowest bid by Albany's Akridge Interiors of $22,000. "We're not comfortable about two lowest bids," said Tony Reese, DCSS construction manager. The job entails pressure washing the entire outside of the three-story building and cleaning all of its windows, both inside and out, Reese explained. This also includes the skylights and rescreening the skylights. "The cost is around $6,000-$8,000 just in equipment and materials alone," Reese said. Bush said the recommendation came down to legitimacy. "You've got to have legitimacy," he said. "It appears (minority businesses are) either too high or too low. It breaks my heart when we had a really good chance to do things and we didn't. Now, everyone is trying to do work, as Maschke stated (because of the economy)."

Householders warned again about "doorstep crime": Police are warning people to be on their guard after a string of deception offences across Avon and Somerset. Officers from the "doorstep crime" team at Bristol are also hoping more victims will come forward to help with their investigation. During these incidents elderly and vulnerable people have been targeted by rogue traders who have tricked their way into homes. In another a pensioner had her bank account cleared through a series of fraudulent transactions. On several occasions' a man has visited houses posing as a window cleaner. After taking money up front he then never returns to complete the work.
Officers are reminding residents that they should never pay for services in advance unless they are completely satisfied the caller is genuine. People are advised to obtain references from others, check credentials and never to feel pressurised into entering contracts on their doorsteps. People should always obtain written quotes where possible. Anyone who has been defrauded or has any information is asked to contact the Doorstep Crime Team at Southmead Police Station on 0845-4567000 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555111. You can also call the charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org which can be accessed by clicking the link in our "related articles" section. They never ask for your name or trace your call.

Employees at community health care centers in west Sonoma County held a low-key demonstration in Guerneville Friday to promote federal health care reform and protest state budget cuts. A main focus was on getting a government-run health insurance plan, or public option, back into federal legislation that is being debated by the Senate Finance Committee. Maggie McDonald, a 56-year-old Guerneville resident, said as she held aloft a protest sign Friday that she no longer has access to low-cost dental care at a time when she says she needs it the most. A disabled window washer, McDonald said she receives $850 a month in state disability payments, which is not enough to cover her monthly rent. “I’m in chronic pain right now,” she said. “It’s difficult for me to eat food. I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight.”