Window Cleaners Supplies With Crowd Funding

CLEAN UP: One of the wash and reach systems sold by Supplies for You.

Window cleaners going up in the world: Worcester businessman Thomas Priest is hoping to go up in the world with his new venture and raise money for a local charity in the process. His company Supplies for You started out as a window cleaning operation, but has now grown into a cleaning business which supplies products to customers, including a wide range of cleaning products, cleaning chemicals, cleaning hardware, washroom products.

Worcester MP Robin Walker and actor/rapper Ashley Thomas aka Bashy, have both Tweeted their support for Supplies for You, which has also attracted a Worcester City Council booster grant. "We will be the only window cleaning suppliers in Worcester, " claimed Mr Priest. "We will be offering wash and reach systems, which will be a major step for this area. There are a lot of window cleaners in Worcestershire and they can cut down on delivery prices by collecting direct from us.

I know a lot of buying is done online, but some people still like the good old fashioned way, with same day collection, being able to see products, get a feel for the products and talk to a real person who knows and has used these products for many years." As it develops, Supplies for You is proposing to make donations to the New Home charity in Worcester, which helps families with disabled children and complex health and care needs.

We are a small supplies company, We are now looking to expand, Supplying cleaning products all around the UK.

What you get back? By donating to help a small business we will enter you in our prize draw.

Prize Draw 1 - Cleaning Products, Excellent for your house,office or business

Prize Draw 2 - Beverages - Pg Tips 1150 - Coffee - 12 Bottles of 500ml Cold Drink

Big prize - Win a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 - 8 Inch - Wifi - 16gb Black

We will also place your name or business name on our website with a link to your twitter, facebook or website Saying you helped us out and how much we appreciate your help

What happens if you raise to much? If we raise to much money, We are going to donate it to a charity within Worcester, The Charity is New Hope Worcester. They work with families that have children with disabilities and complex health care needs. This is a excellent charity and what they do is outstanding. So when donating remember its not just to help a small business but for every Pound, Dollar, Euro over the £3700 we raise will help a charity.

How will you spend the money? We will spend it on a wide range of items we need. We currently have a major section of our funding and are trying to match it with this crowdfunding.

Window Cleaner Rescues Residents

Hero: Plucky window cleaner Darren Bullock, who once played for Worcester City, uses his ladder to rescue a man from the blaze

Football star turned window cleaner pulls man from burning building: A former Worcester City star was the hero after he pulled a man from a burning building moments before he was going to jump from a first floor window. Football player turned window cleaner Darren Bullock climbed his ladder to pull the man to safety as the blaze raged in the house at the junction of Sebright Avenue and London Road.

The man was one of three people from the house treated for smoke inhalation but, if it hadn’t been for Mr Bullock, it could have been worse. The former midfield enforcer, who played for Malvern Town and Worcester City in the late 80s and early 90s, before later playing for Huddersfield and Swindon Town, spotted the smoke billowing from the house as he went to collect the ladders he uses for his window cleaning.

He said: “I was walking up London Road towards the Sebright Arms and I saw smoke billowing out of the chimney. I got by it and there was smoke everywhere. “I went round the side of the house. There was a lad I know who was in the top window and the smoke was billowing out. “I ran over the road to get my ladder and I put it up and got up and grabbed him and pulled him down. “He was struggling for breath because the smoke was really bad. I was only up there for five or 10 seconds and the smoke was horrible. He was trying to get out and said he was going to jump. If he had jumped he might have broken his leg. “The good thing is everybody got out.”

The man was one of eight people living in the house. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing the smoke streaming from the chimney and windows. Brian Salisbury, aged 61, lives in the house but was next door at the Odds & Sods second-hand shop, where he works part time. He said: “I noticed the smoke at about 9am and came outside to make sure everyone was out. There was two lads here with ladders trying to get someone out of the window. “I think my room has had it. The guy was in the flat when it went up. He doesn’t know what happened.”

Another resident, Michael Mountford, 71, wasn’t in when the fire started. He said: “I have lived here for about 37 years. All my clothes were in there. It is sad. If I’d been here it might not have happened.” This is the second major fire in the area in the last few months. A fire wrecked the Seacrest Fish Bar across the road last September. Mark Fletcher runs the post office just a few doors down from the chip shop. He said: “If it had been a couple of hours earlier when people were asleep it could have been a lot different. Something needs to be done to the area, we could do without these fires.”

The window cleaners rescue ladders.

Four fire engines tackled the blaze, three from Worcester and another from Malvern. Emergency services shut both roads for about, an hour causing minor tailbacks in the city. Watch commander Adrian Farmer was the first on the scene. He said Red Watch was called to reports of smoke from a resident of London Road. He said: “We were initially faced with access issues due to parked cars. This delayed us for a few minutes. We proceeded on foot and as we turned the corner we saw one person being rescued for the upper floor by members of the public and there were two further people in the property.

"It was a fully developed fire. I was told there were two people still missing so two breathing apparatus crews searched the upstairs, downstairs and attic room. Everybody has been accounted for. “I would like to praise my crews for their hard work, we were faced with a very difficult, hot fire. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. “I would also thank the members of the public for their actions. Although we don’t encourage people to enter properties they did a good job of rescuing one person before we got there.” The cause of the fire is under investigation but fire crews confirmed the building had an alarm system.

Chasing The Window Washer

Washing windows on 20-story buildings is difficult, and so is getting pictures like this one. Click to enlarge.

Chasing the window washer - By Paul Kapteyn Staff Photographer (Photos in high places): On my way into work in late April, I happened to see some window washers hanging from the roof of 100 Front St. in downtown Worcester. The 20-story building is the future home of the Telegram & Gazette. Though window washer pictures can be a dime a dozen, what made this more interesting was that these guys looked more like rappelling cliff-climbers - no platform in sight. I decided to try to get a photo of one of these fearless men from inside the building.

Little did I know what I was in for. I estimated which floor I needed to be on in order to get the photo, figuring about halfway up the building might work. I took the elevator to the 11th floor, looked out the window of the elevator lobby and saw nothing but dangling ropes. The building's designers went with fixed windows, perhaps anticipating that some crazy photographer might want to stick his head out the window. I returned to the bank of elevators.

I took the elevator up a couple of floors. Still no sign of the washer - just the dangling ropes. I squished my face against the glass trying to see if he was above or below, but no dice. Back to waiting for the elevators. I tried the 10th floor, but still saw only ropes. The movement of the ropes seemed to indicate that the washer was just below me. Of course, the elevators had run off on their own again. Press the button and wait. Go down two floors. Peering up through the window, I saw dangling feet. I took the elevator up to the 9th floor, and there he was, sitting in a harness, a bucket dangling below him.

He was attached to a window with suction cups in one hand and a tethered squeegee in the other. I grabbed a few frames and saw that he was heading to the eighth. I took the elevator to the eighth floor and waited as he worked his way down to where I was positioned. It was impressive to watch how quickly and efficiently he moved from window to window. Sunlight was streaming through the windows, so I stayed in the shadows and lined myself up with a small divider between two large panes of glass, to avoid getting a reflection of myself.

Satisfied that I had gotten a decent image, I now had to get his name. I knocked on the glass, but he apparently couldn't hear me. Repeated knocking finally got his attention, but it soon became clear that sign language is not one of my gifts. Using large block letters, I wrote in my notebook: "YOUR NAME? NEWSPAPER PHOTO" and held it up to the glass. He still apparently didn't understand what I was asking for, and just shook his head. Of course, the reflective glass probably limited his ability to see inside, and from his perspective, why would he want to try to carry on a conversation in sign language with someone while dangling from a building 100 feet off the ground?

I went back down to the first floor to speak with the security guard, who brought me to the building manager, who in turn put me in touch with the local supervisor of the cleaning company contracted by the building owners. The supervisor connected me with a representative from Fish Window Cleaning, to whom I described the person I had photographed. She knew exactly who I was talking about, and said that Mr. Carlos Lemus would be thrilled, since a photograph had just been published in the Boston Herald, showing him cleaning windows at Fenway Park in preparation for its centennial celebration. That may not be as exciting as being photographed cleaning the windows of the future home of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Fenway has been around for 100 years, but the T&G has been in its current building since medieval times.

Getting this image was a good reminder that the simple idea of a photograph can often turn into a much longer process. It's never just a matter of pressing a button.

Lesson For All Window Cleaners From A Car Washer

World's most expensive car wash: £7,200: Gurcharn Sahota, 30, takes up to 250 hours to clean each vehicle with an array of 100 cleaning fluids and wax that costs £8,200 per tub. His premier wash includes polishing and buffing every inch of the car inside and out five times. He even uses a computerised microscope – normally used by forensic scientists – to examine the bodywork for the minutest scratch not even visible to the naked eye. Mr Sahota, who drives a clapped-out VW Golf himself, started the business five years ago by washing his neighbour's cars with a bucket and sponge. Pictured - Gurchan Sahota, using the electronic meter to measure the depth of the paintwork on the car.

But he has since cleaned hundreds of supercars and now boasts a string of celebrity clients. He said: ''When I was younger I washed neighbours' cars and my dad's car whenever I could. ''They never paid me, I loved it so much I did it for free. ''Things have built up from there and now I'm cleaning some of the fastest, most powerful sports cars in the world. ''People come to me and they want the best treatment going for their car.



''If you've got a £500,000 car then a few grand for cleaning is worth it. ''Sometimes I'll work through the night to get a car looking absolutely pristine. ''They're world class motors that deserve a world class wash.'' Mr Sahota, who lives with his parents in Derbyshire, has converted their double garage into a hi-tech workshop.

He built a Formula 1-style pit for scrubbing the underneath of cars and layered the entire workshop floor and walls with specialist tiles imported from Italy which help reflect flecks of dirt on the cars. He begins every clean in the same way – washing it with a lambwool mitten and soapy water. He said: ''I treat every car like an individual project, I want them to leave my workshop looking better than they have ever done.



''I have my processes which I go through and I am meticulous about each one. ''If you're paying £150,000 for a car then you're going to want it to be perfect. ''The first time I cleaned a Ferrari Enzo it took a week and when I tried to sleep all I could see was Ferrari red. ''The car has to be free from all contaminants like dust and dirt before you start otherwise it's going to get scratched. ''I just want perfection. Finishing is the best part because you know what it was like when you started. That gives me great satisfaction.''

After spending hundreds of hours cleaning by hand he uses a £5,000 computerised microscope which examines the car for blotches and scratches. A buffer is linked to a highly sensitive paint gauge which scans the car to prevent patching on the bodywork. Finally, he uses a specialist clay which he rubs over the bodywork to remove any imperfections. Mr Sahota, who works alone, started cleaning cars while he studied for a degree in accountancy at Birmingham University.



After graduating he begged a local Aston Martin dealer to let him clean a DB9 for free. The dealer, who reluctantly agreed, was so impressed with the results he passed on his details to clients and began using him on a regular basis. He then established his own firm – Elite Detailing – and has opened a second workshop in Worcester. He said: ''The work just started flying in. My reputation was great and word just spread.''

His parents Gurbinder, 55, and Amarjit, 53, were so impressed with their son's work they converted their double garage into a hi-tech workshop for his business. Since then he has washed hundreds of supercars including Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Porsches. His proudest moment cleaning the world's most expensive car – the McLaren F1 GTR worth up to £3 million. He said: ''The McLaren F1 GTR is without doubt my favourite car. It is so exclusive you hardly see any of them on the roads. ''They are a very attractive car and every inch of them is perfect – they are a work of art.''

He does not disclose the identities of his celebrity clients identities but one of his customers is the lawyer Nick Freeman – known as Mr Loophole – who regularly sends his Aston Martin DBS Volante to him for a clean. His other customers include Premiership footballers, rock stars, actors and stockbrokers.



Mr Sahota's car washing tips:

1. Use warm soapy water.
2. Add warm water mixed with a PH neutral shampoo in one and plain water in the other.
3. Use a lamb's wool wash mitt which only costs £8 and is better than a sponge.
4. Always wash from the top down.
5. Use different cloths on the bodywork and wheels.
6. Avoid acidic and high-alkaline wheel cleaners and any silicone-based products because they stain.
7. Use a towel instead of a chamois leather to dry the car.
8. Always check the cleaning materials regularly to make sure there's no dirt in them.
9. Always dry the bodywork in small circles to prevent streaking.
10. Take your time and enjoy washing the car.

Find this story hard to believe? - £30,000 for 8 windows coming soon.