Window Cleaner Honoured

Window cleaner Gareth Salmon survived explosions and smoke to save an elderly woman from her burning flat. David Domoney, from ITVs Love your Garden, Gareth Salmon and Chief Fire & Rescue Advisor CFO Peter Holland.

Ruislip father honoured for saving woman from flat fire: A Ruislip window cleaner has been honoured after saving an elderly woman's life rescuing her from a burning flat. Gareth Salmon, 39, of Marlborough Avenue, was cleaning a block of flats when he noticed smoke coming from one of the windows. He immediately stopped what he was doing and rang all the bells of the flats to find out if someone was in there, and a neighbour told him an elderly woman was stuck inside.

The father-of-two said, "I kicked the front door down and got through all the smoke. I had to crawl along the floor for so far, but I wasn’t able to breathe and I couldn’t reach her." Finally gaining access after flames forced him to retreat, an explosion blew him out of the door. Not giving up, he re-entered the property and saved the woman. “The gas had exploded, so that threw me back out the door," he said.

“I went back in but it was still full of smoke and luckily I stumbled over her as she was lying in the hallway, and I think because she was lying down she was still ok. “She was burnt but I managed to pick her up and get myself out through the kitchen and on to the balcony and get her out. About a minute after that it exploded so there was a big fireball out the window, and it just completely wiped out the flat - I was lucky really!”

Brave Mr Salmon didn't think twice about saving the woman and didn't have “time to take in what was happening”. He said: “I was just concentrating. Because I could hear her, I was just determined to get her out. “I was thinking: 'I’ve got to get her before the fire gets any worse.' There’s no way I couldn’t go in.”

The dramatic moments all happened on New Years Eve of 2013-2014, which ended with the woman being airlifted to hospital and London Fire Brigade tackling the blaze. Luckily Mr Salmon wasn't hurt at all, and said: “I was just lucky… when I went in, I just put a cloth around my mouth and I didn’t get any smoke inhalation.”

Spirit of Fire Awards: Mr Salmon was awarded with the title of Adult Hero at the star-studded Spirit of Fire Awards 2015, which took place at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel on October 2, hosted by The Fire Fighters Charity, and presented by BBC newsreader Nicholas Owen.

The Spirit of Fire Awards are supported by Infographics UK Ltd, the developer of FireWatch and FloSuite software for the Fire & Rescue Service, and honour members of the fire community and members of the public by recognising acts of astonishing courage and bravery, as well as dedication to The Fire Fighters Charity.

A stellar line-up of award presenters included comedian Russell Howard; actors Niamh McGrady, Bhasker Patel and John Partridge; sports presenter Diana Binks; TV gardener David Domoney; and Great British Bake Off contestant Mat Riley.

The awards were followed by a Downing Street reception for nominees, hosted by Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. He said: “I’ve been inspired by the accounts of self-sacrifice and dedication that the winners and nominees of this year’s Spirit of Fire awards have shown, both at individual incidents and in their support for the Fire Fighters Charity.

“This charity provides world-class support and treatment for serving and retired firefighters, as well as their families, and it is in recognition of this that we continue to support its work. I would like to congratulate all those involved in the awards, and to thank them for all their hard work and commitment.”

Receiving the accolade was “mixed emotions” for humble Mr Salmon. He said: “You go there and the room is full of firefighters who do it full-time for a living, and you think really, they should be getting all the honour. “But it’s still really nice to be recognised for what you’ve done.”

Window Cleaner Witnesses Urban Growth

Zhang Shimin has witnessed the astounding urban growth of the Chinese capital, Beijing.

Dangling on ropes, cleaner has unique window to China’s urban growth: With almost 20 years experience as a window cleaner, Zhang Shimin has witnessed the astounding urban growth of the Chinese capital. “There was nothing outside the Third Ring Road when I first came to Beijing,” he said, perched on the roof of a 31-story building overlooking the ring road.

Zhang arrived in 1993 as a migrant laborer from a rural area of Sichuan Province. Since then, he’s witnessed many of the traditional bungalows that housed most of the Beijing residents replaced by tall apartment blocks catering to the city’s growing middle class.

With the boom came demands for exterior cleaning as residents could no longer reach the outside of their windows. A few daring migrant workers like Zhang chose to take the risk and dangle down on ropes in pursuit of higher wages. The most demanding periods of the year are from the middle of March to the end of May; then from the end of September until the bitter cold stops them from working.

The contrast between the humble dwellings of the migrant worker cleaners as compared to the homes they look into everyday could not be greater, but Zhang says he seldom looks into the windows while working. “I won’t compare myself with them while working, we are totally different groups.”

In spite of the ever-expanding buildings, business is not all that it should be. Zhang explains that China’s strict anti-corruption campaign has affected their window cleaning business this year. “People who were taking rebates in the cleaning projects are holding back now, so there is really not as much [work] as normal,” he said.

Zhang’s high rise career started in Chaoyang district, the thriving business center of Beijing, which was enjoying the soaring property opportunities for the first ten years of the century. Construction work has now expanded around the major axis of the city. New high rise apartment buildings along with the expansion are providing new opportunities for Zhang and his team.

Glass Fails In The Near Future

After 20 years, another 10 to 15 percent of thermal windows will fail as they are exposed to the elements. And by the 25 year mark a growing number of cladding systems will have major thermal failures, requiring the building skin and/or its mechanical systems to be upgraded entirely.

What are the real costs facing owners of glass condos? (By Lloyd Alter) -  There is much to complain about glass condos; we have noted that they are costly to heat and cool, often uncomfortable and hard on the furniture. As John Straube has noted, "Glass and aluminium are great for cookware but not for buildings." What we haven't noted is the inevitable cost of replacement. In Canadian Facility Management and Design magazine, one of those dead tree trade publications I get sent as an architect, quantity surveyor Joe Pendlebury describes the problem of the glass wall. He claims that five percent of thermal windows may have failed even before they are delivered to the job site.

After 20 years, another 10 to 15 percent of thermal windows will fail as they are exposed to the elements. And by the 25 year mark a growing number of cladding systems will have major thermal failures, requiring the building skin and/or its mechanical systems to be upgraded entirely.

And he is talking about commercial buildings here, not just the window wall systems used on condos. Thanks to the different rates of expansion between aluminium and glass, over the years the seals break down between the framing and the glass, the argon gets out of the sealed units and moisture gets in. Pretty soon the whole system has to be replaced.

The costs of replacing entire walls of glass are prohibitive to some owners of high-rise structures. The average cost to remove and replace a cladding system from a swing stage is about $200 per square foot. As the typical floor-area-to-cladding ratio in high-rise structures is .33, this will translate into a cost of $66 per square foot over the above grade areas of a typical building.

And that doesn't include the cost of the interior finishes, where drywall might have to be busted to expose the anchoring systems, ceilings, and possible relocation of occupants while the work is being done. The owner of a 700 Square foot unit might get hit with an assessment of close to $50,000 if there isn't a big reserve fund to cover it.

Fortunately the building codes are changing and the all glass buildings are no longer the standard. However there are a whole lot of them out there now that are going to have to be fixed in the rapidly approaching future, and it is going to cost serious money.

Glass and aluminium have very different coefficients of expansion, and the sealants are exposed to sun, wind and rain for years.

Why Architects Shouldn't Build Condos out of Glass And People Shouldn't Buy Them: Glass balcony panels are raining down on the streets of Toronto from the shiny new condominiums, building envelope expert John Straube was interviewed on Ontario Morning to discuss the problem. He didn't say a whole lot about why the panels are falling, but did a great explanation of the problems that come from building condos out of glass. There is a big difference between the glass on office buildings and on condos; the former is usually curtain wall, that runs continuously on the exterior, the latter is window wall, really a modified store-front wall redesigned for condos, supported by each floor and running from slab to slab. It is a lot cheaper.

• Glass and aluminium are great for cookware but not for buildings.
• With floor to ceiling glass, you have nowhere to hang a picture, place your furniture or change your underwear.
• Energy efficiency is five times lower than a conventional wood framed house.
• The glass area is so large that it is difficult to control temperature, it's too hot or too cold.
• If we care about the long term, we should go for a balance, no more than 30 or 40 percent glass.

Straube noted that while aluminium and glass are easy to clean and durable, the sealants and gaskets are not, and will need maintenance and replacement down the road. This is not cheap or easy, and the burden falls on the condominium association and the owners. (Glass and aluminium have very different coefficients of expansion, and the sealants are exposed to sun, wind and rain for years.)

Straube suggests that the reason architects choose to build like this is about style and not cost, but I disagree, having worked with the architect and window manufacturer for the project with the falling glass (which was from the balconies, not the windows, and from a different manufacturer) on some of the earliest all-glass projects in Toronto in the 90s. It's a lot cheaper and a lot easier for a developer to work with one trade, the window wall supplier, than to coordinate among trades when mixing precast or brick with glass.

The building code encourages it too, by regulating the R-value of wall constructions, like saying all solid walls have to have an R-Value of R20, but not regulating the overall heat loss through a wall, so a builder can put up a glass tower with an R Value of R4 and comply with the code.

If the authorities in Ontario said, for example, that a total wall area must have an average R-value of 10, then designers would have to figure out a mix of solid wall and glass, and if they wanted more glass they would need to buy better windows, and stop building radiator fin balconies.

But that would raise costs and prices and might kill the golden goose that is the Canadian condo boom, so they will just let the condo purchasers worry about it a decade from now.

Prof. Kesik, projecting 10 years into the future when he estimates their glass walls will fail prematurely.

Glass Towers May Be Sexy, But They Need To Put A Coat On: Ted Kesik doesn't mince words. When everybody else was gaga over Jeanne Gang's Aqua he described it: Take your clothes off, attach a series of highly conductive fins, like the kind they put on motorcycle engines, to the skeleton of your body, and go stand outside in January... Then tell the person who is dressed for winter they are boring, overly practical people who are squashing creative expression.

Now he is back with more architectural pornography imagery, discussing Toronto's new condos and their very thin glass walls with Dave LeBlanc of the Globe and Mail: As a building scientist, I look at buildings the way a doctor looks at a body: I say ‘Ah, it may look sexy but boy, that’s not very healthy. I don’t know if I’d want to be that thin.”

When he is not complaining about new glass buildings, he is helping to fix older ones as part of Toronto's Tower Renewal Project. The towers built in the sixties are solid and had real walls with punched windows, so that they can be retrofitted by adding an exterior insulation and finish system. He calls the old buildings "tough, rugged and robust".

The same cannot be said for our new glass towers. Dave LeBlanc quotes Kesik in the Globe And Mail - “That’s not what’s going to happen to all those wonderful buildings down at Concord Place,” snarls Prof. Kesik, projecting 10 years into the future when he estimates their glass walls will fail prematurely. “They’re going to have to evacuate.” So why do young people line up to purchase there despite the fact that energy performance is usually as bad as a 1960s or 70s building before tower renewal? It’s either the media portraying them as “sexy” or, more likely, that buyers just aren’t aware of their failings: “No industry that I know of provides so little factual information to the consumers of its product; you look at every other industry and they have to convey technological advances or they don’t get sales.”