Window Cleaning News

Pakistani window cleaner survives fall: A Pakistani man cleaning the windows of a high-rise hotel in Jeddah miraculously survived a fall from the ninth floor when one of the cables securing the cage in which he and a colleague were suspended broke, toppling him out and sending him plunging to the ground below. Astonished witnesses who saw the man fall 37 metres to the ground and stand up again immediately called rescue teams and watched as the second window cleaner was rescued from the cage in which he remained dangling precariously by a single cable.

Window cleaner tries to smash record at Ricoh Arena: The world’s fastest window cleaner is in Coventry for two days to try and smash a world record. Terry “Turbo” Burrows will be at the Ricoh Arena today and tomorrow as part of the Carpex and Windex exhibition. He will be taking on other window cleaners to try and break his own record of 9.24secs.

Businessman hopes to help others see more clearly: A challenge from his sister to seriously pray about his lack of a job is what Steve Coleman (pictured) credits with bringing him to the Greensboro area where he now owns and operates the franchise Fish Window Cleaning. “The Bible says, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt. 7:7)' and that is what I did,” he said. “After that things seem to fall into place for me. I believe God has led me in the right direction.” Coleman grew up in the small town of Maxton, N.C. He graduated from the University of North Carolina Pembroke with a degree in mathematics and computer science. Prior to opening Fish Window Cleaning, Coleman was a plant engineer and production manager for Vanity Fair Corporation, where he worked for 12 years in both Texas and Alabama. He and his wife, Edna, moved to Tennessee where he worked for a while, but later returned to Maxton to stay with his mother, who continues to play piano at her church at age 90. “I get a lot of my drive from her,” Coleman noted with a smile.
While job searching on the computer, Coleman inadvertently pushed a button to investigate franchises. Patty Norman of FranChoice, a company representing 250 franchises, contacted him the next day. “I told her I didn't mean to contact her, but she convinced me to look at some of the businesses and came up with several that I could afford and met my interest level,” Coleman said. “Fish was one of them, but when I first heard about it I did not think it was for me.” The more he learned about the company, however, the more he was drawn to it, and his wife was for it from the start. Fish Window Cleaning has been in business for 35 years. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., and has 220 locations across the United States.
Other franchise companies also contacted Coleman, but Fish Window Cleaning Discovery Day, where franchise prospects meet corporate leaders in person, was the only one he attended. “I started looking at Fish in October, attended Discovery Day in December and was trained to clean windows in January,” Coleman said. “I opted to buy a Fish franchise that was for resale in Greensboro rather than start from scratch, and opened my business Feb. 1.” Coleman had visited Greensboro in the past, but knew little about it so researched the area on the Web. Although his office is located at 4915 High Point Road, Suite E in Greensboro, he and his wife decided to live in Jamestown.
Eighty percent of Coleman's business is commercial and the other 20 percent is residential. After six weeks in business, his Fish franchise company had the most number of new accounts sold in one week. He currently has three workers who, along with Coleman, handle the High Point, Jamestown and Greensboro areas. He can also work other zip codes as long as there is no Fish franchise there. Workers are licensed and bonded and customer satisfaction is guaranteed. “I love to work,” Coleman admitted. “I take pride in what I do and my goal is to be No. 1.” With a chuckle he added, “I really notice dirty windows now. Windows are the first thing you see when you approach a building.”

Bank of Mum and Dad bankrupt? Research has revealed that 31% of parents borrowed money from their kids at least once during 2009. On average, piggy-bank raiding parents borrowed £15 at a time, according to the research from money.co.uk, which equates to just under £54 million loaned to the Bank of Mum and Dad over the course of the year. Chris Morling, managing director of money.co.uk, said: "I'm sure we've all been caught short of cash from time to time, for instance when a window cleaner or milk man needs paying. In those situations there's no shame in borrowing a few pounds from the children, providing it's only temporarily. All the same, it's amazing how all those relatively small loans add up when you look at the country as a whole."

A callous conman has struck at the home of a Lowestoft pensioner, stealing the 81-year-old woman's handbag. Police investigations were this week continuing into the distraction burglary at the woman's home in Caddies Walk about 3.30pm on Saturday. Officers are linking this incident to another walk-in burglary in Caddies Walk, between between 11am and 1pm on Saturday, when a purse was stolen. Police need to trace a white man, in his mid 20s to mid 30s, around 5ft 10in to 6ft, of slim build, with short fair hair and wearing a light coloured jacket with a white stripe down the arm. A man offering window cleaning services called at a number of properties in the area on Saturday. The 81-year-old's black handbag, containing a small amount of cash and her pension book, was taken. In the other walk-in burglary a 44-year-old woman lost a black purse containing a small amount of cash. It was revealed this week that more than 140 elderly people had been burgled by doorstep conmen in Suffolk over the past two years, and a national campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the crime. Information about the Lowestoft incidents should be directed to Lowestoft CID on 01986 835300. Anyone concerned about suspicious callers in their area should report them to Suffolk Police on 01473 613500 or dial 999 if a crime is in progress.

The Barfield Players, based in Tonbridge, Kent, also took home the Best Actress and Best Actor awards when they presented The Window Cleaner on Saturday night (February 27), which was also the awards night. Jill the window cleaner discovered the presence of Daryl, a burglar, in the flat for which she had the keys. We got to know a great deal about them as the situation gradually unwound and tension built up.

Landlords bend the law to breaking point in order to elude responsibility and claim costs for damages or even simple maintenance. But, as long as this is within the law, it is difficult—impossible, even—to curb. It is, consequently, essential for students themselves to insist that leases include terms and conditions that ensure landlords meet basic standards of liability. This is no easy feat and requires students to be highly discerning of abstruse legal jargon. A service that students should taken full advantage of is the EUSA advice place, which provides a professional service of reading leases for students to ensure they are fair. But this is not enough. The presupposition that bold and hapless 18 year-olds will clamber precariously out onto balconies to clean windows is absurd. Equally absurd is the expectation that students can afford to foot the bill for regular professional window cleaning. For a landlord to abdicate responsibility, to such an extent, is just wrong.

Lakeland Hospitality Show a great success: Top chefs in the north west rustled up an array of culinary treats for visitors to the Best of Lakeland Hospitality Show this week at the Hyrdro hotel, Bowness. Now in its 35th year the show is invite only and aims to connect people in the hospitality business in the Lake District and help small businesses meet suppliers. Gary Carr, owner of Smart Cleaning Services of Kendal, demonstrated his 65ft extendable window cleaning pole which promises to reach the top floor of any hotel in the Lakes.

Karate kid is master rather than apprentice: Karate kid Mitchell Wallis has turned the tables on his dad, kicking him off the top spot at the family home. The ten-year-old has beaten dad Martin, 44, in the race for a black belt, proving he’s more master then apprentice. Mitchell of Pin Mill, Basildon, first took to the sport when he was just six and now four years later he has just been awarded with his black belt after passing a thorough test. Dad Martin, and mum Karen, 41, said they were immensely proud of their son’s achievement. Martin, a window cleaner who remains one level behind his son as a brown belt, said he was inspired to start his own training after regularly taking Mitchell to the martial arts school. He now helps train the youngsters at the Pitsea sessions. He said: “We’re unbelievably proud of him.

City election leads to runoffs: In a cramped, stuffy room at the Supervisor of Elections office downtown, Craig Lowe and Don Marsh watched Tuesday night as the tallies came in. From the first few precincts that reported, a runoff looked possible, and that's how it ended - for both the mayoral race and for the contest for the District 4 seat on the City Commission. Lowe got 40.13 percent of the vote, and Marsh had 29.17 percent.
In the April 13 runoff, for the mayor's office, it will be the case of polar opposites - Marsh a married, right-leaning window cleaner and Lowe an openly gay, left-leaning city commissioner - who now have another four weeks of campaigning before Round 2. While Lowe, with 4,073 votes, had nearly 11 percent more votes than Marsh, who got 2,960, he failed to get the 50 percent majority required to avert a runoff. Marsh said he was hoping to win outright Tuesday but was glad to still be in the mix. "It's better than being out of it," Marsh said. "I'm glad there is still a ray of hope that we'll be able to do something about our GRU bills," he told reporters, referring to one of his major points of the campaign. Outside the supervisor's office, Cooper congratulated Marsh.

World Federation HQ leaves USA: The World Federation of Building Service Contractors (WFBSC) has moved its headquarters from the USA to the UK, where it will be managed by the Cleaning & Support Services Association. The CSSA's Andrew Large is now also executive vice president of the WFBSC. President Bob King commented on the announcement: "I am delighted that the CSSA, and Andrew Large its chief executive, has assumed the position of executive vice president of the WFBSC. I look forward to working with him to promote professional cleaning across the globe in 2010 and beyond.
“I would also like to pay tribute to the retiring executive vice president Carol Dean. She has been a tower of strength for the WFBSC for over 30 years and her efforts on behalf of building service contractors cannot be understated. We all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to her for her hard work in support of our industry. On behalf of the WFBSC Board and all its members I would like to wish her very well for the future.” The WFBSC is an umbrella organisation made up of national and international professional cleaning associations across the globe.

A family was left ‘humiliated’ when a priest refused to christen their son minutes before the service was due to start. As 50 family and friends sat waiting in St Joseph’s Church, Audley Range, Blackburn, Father David Chinnery discovered neither parent was a Roman Catholic. He told Janine Wood and partner Andrew Craig this meant he could not baptise their five-year-old son Jamie, a pupil at St. Antony's RC School. Andrew, a window cleaner, added: “I felt so embarrassed and ashamed. It was an absolute shambles.” Father Chinnery, who has been at the church since October, said he had presumed they were Catholics.

A remarkable human being, David Howler Fletcher chose to commit suicide last summer at the Diversity Festival on Texada Island by walking out to the depths of the ocean. He was a person who saw depths in others and touched them there. With his charismatic nature, he made a huge impact on a diverse group of people from many communities in Vancouver. When a memorial event was held last July 2009 to help the huge grieving that went through his community with his passing, over 200 people showed up. His Facebook memorial fan page acquired 445 friends with astonishing speed. To this day, people continue to send messages to him on this page. A couple of months prior to his passing, Howler put up a blog advertising his services as a window washer. Like many of us struggling to live in this old world as the new world is being birthed, Howler had difficulty supporting himself financially. Howler’s great gifts as a human being have no monetary value in the current surface reality of our dominant white North American society. There is no paying job for love.

The LEGO® Modular Buildings series continues with this spectacularly detailed 3-story department store, designed in a realistic scale with lots of special building techniques and rare pieces. On the street outside, citizens carry shopping bags, send letters at the mailbox, admire the window mannequins, and cool off at the ice cream stand while a busy window washer works above. Includes 7 minifigures: 1 window cleaner, 1 female shop assistant, 1 genetleman and 1 lady with shopping bags, 1 boy plus 1 male and 1 female mannequin! Grand Emporium - Ages 16+. 2,182 pieces. US $149.99 CA $199.99 UK £ 139.99 DE € 149.99

Are the chemicals you keep in your home safe? Have you ever stopped to think about the chemicals that fill your home? All those cleaning fluids, like washing detergent and window cleaners, may have something in them you should be aware of. Director of the Craighead County Emergency Management, David Moore, says people rarely realize the every day liquids in their home that are potentially dangerous, "Most people use chemicals without realizing what ingredients are in them. To avoid a catastrophe you can't take back, Moore offers these safety tips:

• Always be aware of the ingredients contained in the chemicals you keep in your home.
• Be sure to keep them in a secure location children and animals can't reach.
• Last but not least, be sure not to mix them.
• Often times chemicals are safe when separate, but when combined can release toxic fumes.
  

The pilot of 'Ugly Americans' is a the start of very weird animated series, premiering on Comedy Central right after South Park, set in an alternate New York City inhabited by aliens, mutants, monsters, zombies, and every other creature imaginable. And there is the occasional human, including a nebbish, bleeding heart social worker named Mark Lilly. Mark has some very unique problems living in a city where the concept of diversity is taken to a whole new level. Still, Mark is nothing if not zealous about his job, even when he finds out that he made the mistake of arranging a zombie to get a job as a window washer at a building that stores disembodied brains. Anyone who has seen 'Night of the Living Dead' would know better than that.

'Flashforward' returns to television: "Flashforward," a series built on the psychological trauma of knowing what may happen in the future, returns from winter vacation Thursday night with the tension building nicely. A show that requires regular viewing takes a gamble by going away for several months, and there are moments in Thursday's two-hour return when "FlashForward" struggles to find its rhythm. But it's doing a solid job focusing viewers on its central irony: that contrary to what most of us think, it's far more unsettling to know the future than to have it waiting out there in the dark. "FlashForward" started last Oct. 6, with almost everyone in the world blacking out for two minutes and 17 seconds. This caused massive carnage, with auto accidents, plane crashes, hospital deaths and so on. More intriguing for the survivors, most people had visions of where they would be on April 29, 2010. That includes a window washer whose miraculous survival during the blackout propelled him into a career as an inspirational evangelist running an operation called Sanctuary. This character could go to the light or the dark side. Mainly, he's a handy device for ruminating on the whole flash-forward issue, with his insistence that the visions were God's way of reminding us we should enjoy today because tomorrow is never promised.

Windows: Clean the windows at least once a year. Hansen said most homeowners choose to do that in the spring. With the South Dakota winds, or for anybody living on a gravel road or in a new development, Hansen recommends washing them twice a year to keep the dirt from accumulating in the window tracks.
Hire a professional: Hansen said people can do their own spring cleaning, but with the usual interruptions of the doorbell and telephone ringing or having to taxi the children, spring cleaning may take a homeowner several days or longer to get the job done. Or they may decide to give up entirely. She said professional cleaning services are able to accomplish the job a single day.
“We have two staff members come in. They start early in the morning and are typically finished by 5. They are very well-trained and thorough, and the homeowner can be gone for the day, come home and their spring cleaning is done,” she said.

Church's stained-glass window restored: Four years is a long time to spend in a bath. But that's how much soaking was needed to wash 80 years worth of grime and impurities from a mammoth memorial stained-glass window at the historic Alexandra Presbyterian Church on Colborne Street. In return, the restored and reinstalled window now bathes parishioners with a breathtaking, blazing symphony of colour. The south-facing window was commissioned in the 1920s by the Jex family of Brantford in memory of their only son who died in 1918. The 12-foot by 18-foot window had since partially buckled and bulged from decades of exposure to intense summer heat, and was also coated with about 80 years of car exhaust and other pollutants, said church elder Orland Harrison on Wednesday.
The $40,000 restoration job was completed by Edwards Glass Company in London, Ontario. The long process involved bathing the dismantled sections of the window in vats of solvent for more than four years to soften the lead and loosen impurities, Harrison said. Now truly clean for the first time that anyone can remember, the window's rich depth of colour appears as new.