Window Cleaning News

A window cleaner to write home about - Koron Mays moves from the Willamette Valley to Sandy to expand his business. Koron Mays has established his home-based window washing and gutter cleaning service in Sandy, a business that serves the Portland, Salem, Albany, Corvallis and Jefferson areas. He has accounts in Sandy and serves residential, commercial and post-construction clientele. Mays, who relocated from Jefferson, says — as owner of Koron’s Professional Window Cleaning — he cares about the environment and only uses cleaning products that bear the Green Seal, which are products safe for the environment.

While working at the Mt. Hood Athletic Club in Sandy last week, Mays said he strives not only to get windows clean but to make window cleaning a “wow” experience for clients. “My goal is not to get the job done as fast as possible and do the minimum requirements to get paid,” he said. “My goal is to establish a long-term relationship with my customers and do whatever it takes to earn their return business and enthusiastic referrals.” Mays’ money-back guarantee seems to help his clients feel more comfortable, especially the first time they order service. “I want to give my customers the peace of mind of knowing that they will not be put in the situation (that some people have found themselves in) of having a window cleaner do poor or incomplete work,” he said. “There is no risk with KPWC. If (the customer) is not satisfied with the job, then he or she will not be required to pay.”

Before pursuing his window cleaning business, he worked in Portland and Lebanon as a medical assistant — a detail-oriented career. Mays describes his business philosophy in simple terms: “Establishing lifelong customers through excellent service, competitive prices and a 100-percent satisfaction guarantee.” “Earning your return business, and your enthusiastic referral,” he said, “is my number-one goal.” Mays’ attention to detail is likely responsible for the testimonials on his website. Here’s a sample, from a customer at a real estate office in Albany: “Our windows look amazing. Just looking out and seeing how clean they are makes me happy. You did a fabulous job and we will tell everyone about KPWC and how great of a job you do. Thanks again, you really came at just the right time for our office. Warmest regards.” Mays’ business has been screened by Service Magic, a group of professionals screening service providers. Service Magic screens the following areas of each business it approves and certifies: verify trade license, insurance and state business filings; criminal records search; sex offender search; bankruptcy search; legal search for civil judgments; liens search; and identity verification with a Social Security number and reverse telephone search. Mays accepts payments by major credit cards and PayPal. He offers free estimates, and is licensed and insured.

Seychellois court jails 9 Somali pirates: A court in Seychelles has handed 22-year jail terms to nine Somali nationals charged with piracy, amid a drive to seek convictions for suspected pirates. "When we come across a boat with ladders on board, we can be sure they are pirates," complained a senior member of NATO's anti-piracy task force in October. "After all, there are no known window-cleaning operations in the Indian Ocean."

Big-hearted Orangemen had a whipround to replace an elderly Dreghorn couple’s stolen Christmas savings – after reading about their plight in the Irvine Herald. Members of Dreghorn and Parish Loyal Defenders LOL 218 were so touched by Eddie and Isabella Short’s story they clubbed together to raise the full £400 nicked by a bogus window cleaner. Eddie, 65, and Isabella, 60, of Cumbrae Court, had scrimped and saved the cash for a year to buy presents for their four grandchildren before the callous conman struck on November 26.

A “sadistic and controlling” window cleaner has been sentenced to two years behind bars for a series of cruel assaults. Basildon Crown Court heard Steven Scannell, 27, carried out a string of inhumane beatings against housemate and work colleague Zack Greaves over six months. The final and worst attack at the pair’s flat in Hollands Walk, Vange, saw Scannell assault his victim with weapons, including a rolling pin, police truncheon and wheel brace. Mr Greaves, 23, who is from the Basildon area, suffered a broken jaw and numerous cuts. He also had to have two skin grafts on his left leg because of the horrific nature of the wounds.

The attacks took place between August and December 2008. The victim had previously made up stories to explain his injuries but informed police after the final assault and Scannell was arrested. Scannell, who was 25 at the time of the attacks, met Mr Greaves through playing roller hockey and later offered him a job working with him as a window cleaner. The victim later moved into his attacker’s flat and the problems began. The court heard Scannell began by withholding cash from his flatmate, telling him he was not capable of looking after his own money.

LEGO – Moscow Office: If you’re anything like me, you lived, breathed, and occasionally ate LEGOs in your younger days. There was nothing more exciting than the chance to build your own toys right out of your imagination. Most of us grew up and had to leave our LEGOs in the back of the closet, but a lucky few get to live the dream of playing with them and get paid for it. Some of those people live in Moscow. And we are looking at their office today. The office doesn’t disappoint. Actually, it has even more LEGOs than I would’ve expected. There’s a fancy doorman, a tourist (sandals and socks!), a window washer, a painter, a knight, a Russian landscape, a monkey, three parrots, hedgehog, an office pig… all made entirely out of LEGOs. They even made a giant Russian nesting doll out of LEGOs!

Loneliness is a disease that afflicts most small-business owners. It can be so severe that mental paralysis prevents the business from growing and it may even lead to failure. The best defense includes surrounding yourself with other business owners who understand the challenges you face daily. They can help you take a step back from problems that seem all consuming so that solutions become more apparent. Additionally, it is likely that others have faced similar challenges and were able to conquer them. Jeannette Watling-Mills, owner of Bob's Window Cleaning in Sarasota told me that, "Even when their business is going well, they are tired of doing it all and doing it alone." In addition to being an entrepreneur, she is a volunteer business mentor with the SCORE Manasota chapter, based in Sarasota, Fla.

Gutter Rake Review: An Easier, Safer Way to Get the Leaves Out - The Product: Gutter Rake. The Price: $9.95, plus $6.95 shipping and handling. The Claims: 10 times faster and easier than other gutter tools. The Gutter Rake reduces the thing I hate most about cleaning gutters -- watching my husband climb a ladder. Greg is the gutter rake in our house. And twice a year my heart stops as he climbs the extension ladder, balances on one leg as he reaches for leaves, then climbs down and moves the ladder over six feet to do it all again. The Gutter Rake, which claims to extend your wingspan up to 32 feet, actually does cut down all that upping and downing and oops-I've-plunged-to-my-death-ing.

The Gutter Rake is a simple, 2-foot piece of plastic with a hook at one end, and a straight scraper at the other. Twist the Gutter Rake onto a broom handle or extension pole. The scraper grabs leaves and other gutter crud, then the hook pushes debris under and past fastening struts. I guess it could add 32 feet to your reach, if you fasten the Gutter Rake to a 16-foot pole, although that's a bit much to maneuver from a ladder. But a 5-foot broom handle is manageable and triples your reach. That translates to fewer ladder moves and fewer chances for it to fall through the kitchen window. The Gutter Rake also makes cleaning gutters obstructed by tree branches easier. Instead of positioning the ladder between branches, Greg parked the ladder 3-feet away from the tree and reached past and under the limbs with the rake.

Is the Gutter Rake 10 times faster than other gutter tools, as it claims? Nope. You still have to scrape the leaves, bag the leaves, and move the ladder. Also, the Gutter Rake is about 2-inches wide, while gutters typically are 5-inches wide, which means repeated passes until you clear all the leaves. But the Gutter Rake does shave time off a dirty and dangerous job that, with a little luck, my husband will do for years to come. Video at link.

Fighting ashes with ashes: Cleaning glass fireplace doors - Sooty fireplace not looking Santa-ready? Instead of using ammonia or harsh chemical cleaners to clean glass fireplace doors, opt for a most unlikely soot-removing remedy: Fireplace ash. When removing built-up carbon residue and other gunk from glass fireplace and wood stove doors, a normal glass/window cleaner most likely isn’t tough enough given that you're not dealing with regular glass. As an alternative, most folks resort to rags dipped in household ammonia, oven cleaners like Easy-Off, or harsh, heavy-duty products manufactured specifically for the task.

Although these solutions can be effective in removing soot and built-up grime and don’t require an extraneous amount of elbow grease, they must be used with utmost caution given their hazardous properties that call for the wearing of rubber gloves and googles, the holding-in of breath, and the opening of windows. Or, you could avoid chemicals altogether and opt for old newspapers dampened with water and dipped in fireplace ashes. Yep, fireplace ashes. Although it’s counterintuitive and requires a bit more effort on your part, scrubbing glass fireplace doors with the what-in-the-heck-do-I-do-with-this residue left from a raging wood fire does indeed do the trick.

Extra Clean Inc., the leading window cleaning, pressure washing, post construction cleanup, and exterior building maintenance service company in Maryland, Washington DC and Virginia is pleased to announce the appointment of Angela Dixson as the new company president. In her new role, Mrs. Dixson will have total responsibility for day-to-day operations of Extra Clean. Angela Dixson, President of Extra Clean, Inc says

"I look forward to serving Extra Clean in my new role," Angela Dixson said. "I will build on the skills and knowledge I have acquired over the 22 years of working for the company and in the cleaning service industry. I will ensure Extra Clean remains the industries preferred window cleaning, construction cleanup, and pressure washing company in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area".

Elgin residents will have to endure the frigid holidays this year without the favorite Christmastime tradition - the Remembering Elgin calendar: Since 1996, Councilman and auctioneer John Prigge has been publishing a “Remembering Elgin” calendar showing Elgin scenes from the 1940s through the 1960s. But he says he won’t do that this year because sales have gone down over the past two years to the point where he loses money on the project. Each year, Prigge says, he would print about 1,000, of which he would give away 200 to his business clients and offer 800 for sale, mainly at the State Street Market in Elgin. He said people still can buy back issues of the 15 calendars at the State Street Market, for half their original $10.95 price. The photos all were taken by an Elgin window washer named Bob Will, who carried around one of those old-fashioned cameras that took photos on 2.25-inch film, five times as large as the usual 35mm film. Prigge says Will often would come home from church on Sunday, file away that week’s bulletin, then walk back downtown with camera in hand, looking for targets of opportunity.

Cleaning windows 50 metres above the ground: Cleaning the windows of a highrise building doesn't seem like a big deal, until you witness one of the abseil cleaners strap into a harness and lower themselves over the edge. Perched on top of the ABC Collinswood building, some 52 metres above street level, Daniel the operations manager from SA Window Cleaning believes he has one of the best jobs in the world. As he slips over the edge of the building in his abseiling gear, it's easy to notice it is not a job for the faint hearted. "I think it's a good cure for people with a fear of heights," Daniel said. "A few people come in with a fear of heights, they end up doing this and they love it by the end of the day."

Depending on workloads and weather conditions, Daniel can be found on the sides of up to eight buildings per week around Adelaide giving the windows a quick clean. Wind, thunder and rain can make a job unsafe for the crews to start. Even on a relatively calm day, updrafts can make it a little challenging. "It's a bit hard to keep your windows clean with the wind blowing your water back up the side of the building." Abseiling teams are used around Adelaide on buildings of up to 26 storeys in height. "There's a couple a bit bigger than that, but we use the building maintenance units on those ones," Daniel explained.

Strangely for observers, the higher the crews are, the easier the cleaning can be on the larger sites. "The further you get down the building, you get a lot more bounce in your ropes and you pendulum a lot more." With over 12 years of abseil window cleaning, Daniel says apart from the amazing office views the feeling of freedom whilst he is abseiling down the face of buildings keeps him coming back for more. It's not all swinging from ropes and looking at the views though, with the job's physical demands ruling it out for many. "Some jobs it really takes it out of you, especially a long job with a lot of scrubbing involved."

On hot summer days temperatures of 40 degrees can jump another 20 degrees thanks to rising hot air and reflected sun from surrounding buildings. And on hot, windy days, one of the biggest challenges the crews face is their washing water drying too quickly. With a quick smile and a wave, Daniel attaches his cleaning gear bucket and slides over the edge to keep working on cleaning off what the weather and local pigeon population has left decorated on the side of the ABC Collinswood building. More pictures here.

Chicago braves season’s first cold snap:  Window washer Sergio Enriquez dumped some rubbing alcohol into his wash bucket to keep it from freezing. “I usually wear windproof stuff, ’cause it’s kind windy here,” Enriquez said.  “It’s the Windy City.” Kevin Birk, with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, said the region can expect cold temperatures and bitter wind chills for the rest of the week.

Window Cleaning Springs woman sells business, possessions for Buddhist life in Colorado Springs: Gwyn Waterfield, her head shaved and wearing a white robe, walked slowly down an aisle at Shove Chapel on the Colorado College campus last week during her Buddhist Precept Ceremony. Nine months ago, Waterfield was an Austin, Texas, business owner with 10 employees. She gave it up and most of her possessions to pursue becoming a Buddhist nun. “I have some nervousness and fear about my new life,” Waterfield said, “but mostly I have an enormous amount of gratitude.” The ceremony signified Waterfield becoming an Anagarika within Buddhism’s Thai Forest Tradition.

As an Anagarika, Waterfield will adhere to the Eight Buddhist Thai Forest Precepts: refraining from sexual activity, speaking falsely, ingesting mind-altering products, eating after noon, entertainment, beautification, adornment and oversleeping. After one year, Waterfield will be a novitiate, which requires, in addition to the precepts, prohibition from preparing food and driving a car. Two years from now, she may be an ordained Buddhist monastic, though the process usually takes longer.  Waterfield is the first to join the monastic arm of the nonprofit Awakening Truth, founded by Ajahn Thanasanti earlier this year in west Colorado Springs. Awakening Truth also offers Tava Sangha, a free meditation and talk from Thanasanti for lay people.

Monastics within the Thai Forest Tradition take a vow of poverty, making them dependent on donations for survival since they never charge for their talks and good works. “We live in a world where self-discipline, restraint and self-renunciation are not popular,” Thanasanti, sitting cross-legged on a pillow, said. Monastics “open the door for people to question their choices. There is another choice.” Raised on a ranch in Canadian, Texas, Waterfield got a double-shot of Christianity. Mom was a Roman Catholic and Dad a Methodist. Her teen and early-adult years were marked by drinking and drug use, she said. Because of her wayward lifestyle, it took her a number of years to finish her math degree at St. Edward’s University, a Catholic college in Austin. In 1998 she founded “Gwyndows,” a window-cleaning operation in Austin that quickly grew into a formidable residential and commercial business.

Hello there old beans. Here we are in the far east having a jolly good time playing the old Sport of Kings, Nepal-style. Being the off-season at home, some of us chaps got a team together and flew out for the annual Pimms and Elephant Polo Festival at Chitwan about 200km from Kathmandu. You know what they say - too much polo is never enough. Jolly good show, too. The main difference, as you can see, is longer sticks and a chap has his own driver - sort of like the chauffeur one has at home. It's jolly relaxing and you have rather a long time to think about your next shot. We all take the sport very seriously and us chaps practise at home by riding around on the top of our Range Rovers swinging mallets fashioned from window-cleaning apparatus.

A 59-year-old Llanelli window cleaner who failed to stop after two road accidents and then resisted arrest has been ordered to pay £365 by town magistrates. Michael Finnegan, of Havelock Street, admitted two charges of failing to stop after an accident and one of obstructing or resisting a police constable in the execution of their duty. Gerald Neave, prosecuting, told the court that police received a report of a hit-and-run road traffic collision outside New Dock Road post office on September 20 this year. Finnegan's Nissan Bluebird was seen to drive away from the scene. A minute later, police received another report saying the same vehicle had hit the fence of a garden at Ropewalk Road. A police officer attended the scene and encountered the defendant. Then, said Mr Neave, Finnegan "became aggressive without provocation". He told magistrates how Finnegan said to the officer: "What the **** are you doing here? I wasn't driving."

Mr Neave said: "He was showing aggressive behaviour. "The defendant clenched his left fist, leaving the officer to believe he was going to strike." The police officer took Finnegan to the floor using a handcuff take down and he continued to struggle, the court was told. The officer called for assistance, but managed to handcuff Finnegan before help arrived. Finnegan told police that after the collision in the post office car park he "panicked", and when he got to his home he collided with a fence. He said he did not answer the door when police called "for fear of being arrested". The court heard Finnegan had been a self-employed window cleaner in the Morfa area, but had given up work. For failing to stop he was fined £100 and his licence was endorsed with ten penalty points, and the second failing to stop after an accident resulted in a further fine of £100. Finnegan was ordered to pay £65 for obstructing a police constable in his duty, prosecution costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £15.

Piano technician, window cleaner sell Lombard 3BD: Cyril, David, Kevin, and Scott Grandsard sold a three-bedroom, four-bath home at 1135 E. Adams St. in Lombard to Ingerrev and Kent Lawrence for $270,000 on June 7. The 1,560-square-foot house was built in 1967 in the Lombard East neighborhood. David Grandsard is the owner of It's A Pitch Piano Service in Lombard, which specializes in tuning, repair and regulation of pianos. He is a certified piano technician. He is a graduate of the Chicago School for Piano Technology. Scott Grandsard is the owner of C & S Window Cleaning in Carpentersville, which he founded in 1979. According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 462 home sales in Lombard during the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $206,000.

Platmin Completes Placing of US$90 Million of New Shares: A total of 83,846,154 common shares were indirectly placed with Dutch pension manager, Algemene Pensioen Groep N.V. ("APG"). Following completion of the placing, APG will hold, indirectly, 124,998,417 common shares representing approximately 16.7% of the then outstanding common shares. APG provides for the collective pension schemes for participants from the education sector, the government (civil servants), the construction sector, the cleaning/window-cleaning sector, housing corporations and energy/utilities companies, amongst others. APG manages around €265 billion in pension capital for these sectors (as at 30 September 2010). APG works for more than 20,000 employers, provides for the income of more than 4.4 million participants, and manages over 30% of all collective pensions in the Netherlands.

Forty Years Ago: The La Cañada High School Marching Band struck upon a unique fund-raising project for the December break in 1970. Called "Rent-a-Spartan," it allowed La Cañadans to telephone the student chairman of the project and request any type of household assistance, including garage clean-up, window-washing and baby-sitting.

Thanks to the late, pioneering eco-architect Bengt Warne’s Naturhus (Nature House) concept, maintaining a vibrant topical garden while cutting back on household energy costs during the middle of a brutal winter is indeed possible. Basically, a Naturhus is a normal, modestly sized abode completely encased in a greenhouse that “functions as an outer barrier” and allows for the year-round growing of plants that wouldn’t normally survive in frigid climates. Warne’s Naturhus concept has garnered a small but devout following in his native Sweden (Warne completed his own Naturhus in the mid-1970s) that includes Rosemary and Anders Solvarm, a couple whose own Naturhus consists “of a climate-shell, living quarters and a self-contained ecological system.”  The self-contained ecological system conserves energy and nutrients which are transformed by plants and trees into flowers, fruits and vegetables. Any misgivings concerning circulation, window cleaning, problems with humidity, sensitivity to storms etcetera, can now be dismissed.

Toronto-Dominion Bank is buying Chrysler Financial for $6.3 billion, the second time in a week that a Canadian lender has placed a big bet on the U.S. economic recovery. A window washer cleans the sign on a TD Bank in New York's financial district.