Window Cleaning BBQ + Other News

THIS SATURDAY Aug 15th 2009: Hillsboro, Oregon: The North West Window Cleaners BBQ is the gathering place for all window cleaners in the North west territory. This is the place where we get together leaving the competitive edge behind, discuss current events and the window cleaning industry. Its my belief by helping one another we grow and better our trade as a whole. Tim Hunter of "Gleaming the View" will showcase Networking, Demos, a Swap-meet & a BBQ. Click here for more details.

A Janesville window cleaning company donates its time and services to area non-profit organizations. The Association of United Window Cleaners, (AUWC) a national organization, encourages members to take part in its two weeks of charitable service. So that's what Xtreme Cleaning is doing. Workers spent the day at Rock Assembly of God Church in Janesville, making sure all of the windows were squeaky clean. "I think it's very important in the struggling economy that we have that we don't forget about the non-profit organizations and the people in need," said Xtreme Cleaning Owner Troy Nelson. Next week Xtreme Cleaning will be in Beloit, cleaning windows at the Hands of Faith Homeless Shelter.

Learning the ropes paves way for new jobs: There was a time when the only people who knew how to abseil down ropes were climbers, cavers and the SAS. However, all that is changing. 'Offshore' industries such as shipping and oil production have realised a trained abseiler can save them an enormous amount of money in regard to inspections and maintenance, and so the demand for high altitude workers has rocketed. Rather than construct costly scaffolding to get up to the area, a trained abseiler can do the job in a fraction of the time. And as the credit crunch has taken hold, more and more workers are seeing the attraction of this kind of work.
With rope access operatives able to earn up to £48,000 for working just six months of the year offshore, it's little wonder there's also been a surge in applications to get that all important qualification. Asked what sort of jobs are available to graduates of the course, Mark replied: "Now there's a lot of wind turbines being built, and there is a new initiative on the Tyne to build more. "People also want to go offshore such as on service maintenance, inspection work and NDT. "There are jobs onshore too; window cleaners, on wind turbines, scaffolders, painters. Anything at height, they could do this course."

Nevada JobConnect launches employment quest: Job seekers in Las Vegas are about to get a burst of new opportunities. The state agency in charge of helping people find employment has launched a major new offensive or, as they call it, a job "quest." It's like a military surge with an army of agents out all around Las Vegas, calling and meeting employers over the next two weeks. The goal of this quest is to add hundreds of new job listings to the JobConnect system. Every day, hopeful job seekers study the listings. But for most of the year, the pickings have been slim: window cleaner, part-time cook, and the occasional skilled position like MRI technician. What the JobConnect office needs is more - a whole lot more - opportunities for the unemployed to get their lives back in business. There are currently 540 job orders posted at the JobConnect office; the goal is to have nearly double that inventory by the end of the week.
But job counselors know that is a tall order. In some cases, a single job listing will generate 500 applications - not good odds at all. But with more postings, the hope is that applicants will start seeing better results. The Nevada JobConnect listings can be accessed in person at the office across from the Boulevard Mall or around the clock via the Internet at the Nevada JobConnect web site. Nevada currently has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the country at 12 percent. Michigan, home of the auto industry, is number one with 15 percent.

MPs' expenses - they just don’t get it! Letters/ Sir, I have just read the letter from my MP Barbara Follett addressing her reasons for claiming, and now paying back, those expenses. I would like to know in view of her explanation, how £1,600 for window cleaning could be considered a justifiable parliamentary expense? Does serving as an MP make one's windows somehow more grubby? Well it certainly appears to make their view on financial morality a tad obscure. Oh dear, they still don't get it, do they?
J Cooper,
Stevenage.

Ever done this? The window-washing mix has a great ad on TV about two crows sitting on a line laughing at the guy who runs into a very clean patio glass door. Of course, it has been cleaned with Windex. Ever seen it? Well, last week I felt really stupid, again, and I would have fit right in if that pair of crows was sitting on a nearby utility line. I happened to be at the Rocky Mount water treatment, or filtration if you like that word, plant. There are two large, heavy plate glass doors at the entrance to the building. On one side, there is an equally as large heavy plate glass window. Turning on my heels and sorta talking back to Bob, I headed out the door in great haste!
I was suddenly stopped when I walked head-on into the big plate glass window with a loud thud! I was reaching to push the door open with my left hand and, of course, I was more than a "shade" off my target. My right hand slammed into the glass, knuckles first as my left hand reached part of the door where the hinges are located. Also hitting the heavy glass was my head! That brought a loud thump. Most of the time I wear a Crooked Road pin at the bottom of my News-Post hat. Well, the pin smacked the glass and the little round back that holds it in place drove a little round hole into my forehead! I reeled backward from the impact to Bob's instant question, "Are you okay?" Still a little stunned from the blows, I assured him I was as I cleared the cobwebs out of my head and looked at my red, aching knuckles. Then it dawned on me that my forehead also was hurting. I checked under the cap but found no blood! I did feel a tiny knot left by the pin's backing. I walked out to where I had parked Goldie, checking my knuckles and sorting out everything. Returning to the building, I thought about the commercial and glanced over at a nearby telephone line. Thank goodness I didn't see a pair of crows sitting there laughing their heads off at what I had just done As I walked back inside, I stopped long enough to check just how clean the glass really was. It sparkled. No fingerprints, smudges or anything else. It would have made an excellent commercial if a crew had been set up ready to roll. The first "take" would have been perfect. It would have to be because I sure wouldn't go for a second take. The next morning, my knuckles were still red and a little swollen. And my head still bore the little broken mark in my skin and the area was sore.

Manufacturers Look for Creative Ways to Climb Back: More than half of respondents to a recent survey said they plan to identify new market segments and jumpstart aggressive sales and marketing efforts when asked what changes their company would likely make over the next 12 months. The unscientific poll taken of Manufacturing and Technology eJournal readers from July 22 through July 28 drew more than 350 responses. Readers were asked to choose more as many answers that applied to their situation. Other top answers include expanding territory to look for new business wherever it may be (more than 36 percent), looking to existing vendors for cost reductions (32 percent) and eliminating underperforming products and services to conserve capital (24 percent). Less than 24 percent said they plan to layoff employees. Other answers include reducing salaries or days worked to cut costs and save jobs (21 percent); staying closer to home for business to cut costs (12.5 percent); asking creditors for extended payment terms and/or grace period (9 percent); selling company assets (9 percent); applying for a business loan (6 percent); and pursuing other options (6 percent). David Velie, managing partner of Cincinnati, Ohio-based Amend Consulting/Techsolve, says there is still time to take meaningful action to stay competitive. When the CEO of one of Velie's clients asked his team to cut budgets, for example, the move meant eliminating the window cleaning service. To set an example, the CEO stuck around after work and cleaned windows himself.

AUWC East Coast Regional

Today live, taking place & already posted up on FlixWagon is todays AUWC seminar posted up by Window Cleaning Resources for your enjoyment. The quality is slightly dodgy due to all the footage is taken on a mobile phone. Chris's (of WCR) hand must be aching! I will be posting them up as they come in! The first video by clicking the picture below is the seminar on fabrication debris & scratched glass. The following segments can be seen by clicking to the next video to the left of the one you are watching once you reach the page destination.

Kevin the window cleaning coach talking at the AUWC East Coast Regional in Rhode Island about "The Hidden Secrets to Rapid, Profitable Revenue Growth.

"Get the fog out. " De-fogging double glazed units, a quick presentation:
In 2002, Crystal Clear Window Works (CCWW) secured the exclusive, worldwide patent rights to a process for removing moisture and condensation from failed insulating glass units.
CCWW then proved and commercialized the business of DeFogging windows using its own proprietary window restoration and defogging techniques that include specialized tools, environmentally safe solutions, business systems and unique venting and valving technologies to remove fog, chemical fogging, moisture and residue from failed thermal pane windows.

Alex & Bill of Window Cleaning Resources show scratch restoration on glass with the SRP.
The SRP Glass Restoration System quickly, easily, and neatly, removes scratches from Plate, Tempered, Laminated, Mirrored, or Curved Glass. Unlike other scratch removal products, the SRP Scratch Removal System can remove Damage and Graffiti from glass…even if made by Carbide Scribes or other Glass Cutting Tools!

New Unger Brush, Conferences, Starbucks & More

Abrasive and lightweight - the Unger HiFlo CarbonTec brush with boar bristles: The new Unger HiFlo CarbonTec brush head made from 100% boar bristles is the right choice for professional cleaners who want their tools to be durable and efficient. The brush head is made of pure mahogany wood, a lightweight but strong wood which retains its shape even under great stress and so is guaranteed to be easy and reliable to use. Brooms and brushes made of animal hair have been popular in cleaning throughout the ages. Experts like to use tools made of natural materials, particularly because of the build-up of electrostatic charge in synthetic bristles. The manually bonded boar bristles are more durable and better at retaining their shape: this latest brush from Unger has been proven to remove surface dirt more effectively than comparable nylon brushes. It is available in sizes 27cm and 40cm.

UK Contract Cleaning Market Research Report - Companies and Markets adds new report. This report on the UK contract cleaning market includes all aspects of the commercial and industrial cleaning market that is contracted out. This includes the interior cleaning of offices, factories, retail outlets etc; window cleaning; industrial equipment cleaning and disinfecting and extermination services. An overview of a number of industry players is also provided, including a five year financial analysis as well as a set of key financial ratios. The report does not attempt to provide a comprehensive list of the leading companies, but reviews a representative sample of the different types of companies operating in the sector in order to provide benchmarking opportunities of relevance to a variety of readers. The UK contract cleaning market research report is updated quarterly and is clearly illustrated with tables and diagrams analysing five year historical data together with five year forecasts. The report analyses the development of the market together with the market size, regional analysis, government employment issues and trends within the UK market. Yours for 600 quid ($1200).

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The firing of a Taser stun gun that led an emotionally disturbed man to fall from a Brooklyn building ledge to his death on Wednesday appeared to have violated departmental guidelines, the police said on Thursday. The guidelines tell officers that when possible, the Taser, which fires barbs that deliver thousands of volts of electrical current, should not be used in situations when a person could fall from an elevated surface. A law enforcement official identified the lieutenant who gave the order to use the Taser as Michael Pigott, a 21-year veteran of the force. He was placed on modified assignment without his gun and badge, and the officer who fired the weapon was put on administrative duty amid an investigation by the Police Department and the Brooklyn district attorney. The police declined to identify the officer. Officers at the scene of the confrontation had called by radio for an inflatable bag as the events unfolded, but it had not yet arrived when the man, Iman Morales, 35, was struck with the device and fell, according to a statement by the department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne.

GREAT NECK, N.Y., Hyman Golden - co-founder of Snapple Beverage has died at age 85 in Great Neck, N.Y., from complications of a stroke, his family says. In 1972, Golden and two partners took a small investment and turned it into a beverage business that eventually competed with industry giants such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo., The New York Times reported Sunday. In 1994, Quaker Oats bought Snapple for about $1.7 billion when it had annual sales of $700 million and could be found in delis, stores, machines and homes throughout the country, the Times reported. Golden, who died Sept. 14, was born in Passaic, N.J., working first as a window-washer for his father, a Romanian immigrant, said his daughter, Sharon Golden Brenner.

NEW YORK - Starbucks has ended its four-year relationship US ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, putting its $55m advertising and media combined account up for grabs. The split has been attributed to creative differences less than a year after the coffee chain's first TV campaign. The campaign, which broke late last year in the US, introduced the line 'Pass the cheer'. One of the animated spots in the campaign showed penguins handing a cup of coffee to a window washer.

Finally "picture of the day" A church steeple was reflected on the side of a London building that window washers were cleaning Tuesday. (Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Press — Getty Images.) Click to enlarge.

Fabricating Debris on Glass

The sound (Gary Mauer) of fabricating debris on glass (video courtesy of window cleaning resources).

I've been putting off the subject of fabricating debris for quite a while now, as its such a body of work that needs addressing and is coming to the forefront in the window cleaners world, although the problem has been around for much longer. If it hadn't been for the work of Gary Mauer & Dan Fields, more window cleaners would probably have gone out of business by now.

Gary Mauer runs a widely respected network & has educated window cleaners worldwide on the problem of fabricating debris & Dan Fields educates via his website, tapes & DVD's.

If you are not familiar with the problem, I urge you to sign up now to the discussion group or get the information from the websites concerned, click on Gary & Dan to take you straight to their respective sites.

The issue here is why some uncoated tempered glass (but not all) may be so laden with abrasive fabricating debris that it will scratch when you clean it with a standard window cleaning scraper. Fabricating debris is an inherent problem with tempered glass, but clearly some temperers do a good job of minimizing it, while others do not.

Lately a war of words has broken out between GANA & window cleaners in the USA. With GANA contradicting themselves by saying scrapers shouldn't be used, but.......a small scraper could be used???

More links from the AUWC with their defective glass bulletin & an open letter to GANA from the IWCA. The MWCoA also put out a great pdf file with some excellent pictures. Make sure you have a waiver in place before attempting any builders cleans, some window cleaners reserve the right for a signature before any window cleaning is attempted on any glass. Another video below of a window cleaner explaining fabricating debris.