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| What brand of squeegee handle is that??? |
Job spotlight: Benjamin Hanks, window cleaner and owner of Mr. Squiigii in Columbus: You may have heard of a squeegee, that tool commonly used to wipe water from a glass surface. But have you heard of Mr. Squiigii? That's the company launched by Columbus native Benjamin Hanks nearly two years ago after suffering a layoff from his journeyman electrician job in Utah and then exhausting his unemployment compensation before returning to Georgia.
"I wondered what type of business I could open up that would have a minimum amount of overhead with a high amount of profit," he said. "So I did some research on the Internet and came up with window cleaning and finally figured out a name to give my business. I then started adding friends from Facebook."
Hanks, 35, joked he was looking to find "something as dangerous as electrical work" while paying the bills and setting up a lifelong career. He's on his way, with cleaning jobs on both homes and commercial buildings under his belt.
He hopes the next step will be tackling a high-rise structure, something along the lines of the 18-story Aflac corporate tower or the 14-story Columbus Government Center. To that end, he has completed a rappelling course to get the feel for working in high places.
The Ledger-Enquirer talked with Hanks recently about his job, his preparation and the tools of his trade. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What types of structures are you now cleaning?
I'm doing two-story buildings and up to three-story homes. I am in the process of getting rappelling equipment so that I can start doing high rises. I actually developed and designed a portable crane system that you can take apart and put back together on top of the roof of a building to rappel over and not only do just window cleaning, but any type of exterior maintenance. I've gotten the thing made, but I'm now working on getting the rappelling gear.
So you actually took a rappelling class?
I did. I got certified as a master rappel instructor through a company in Atlanta. They specialize in tactical rappelling for the military. Not only did I learn how to sit in a seat, I also learned how to Aussie rapel, which is face-forward down a building; backwards rappelling, which is regular rappelling; inverted and rescues. That course was about a week.
I take it you don't have a fear of heights?
I have no fear of heights whatsoever. With God on my side I have no fear of anything ... It can be a little queasy, but once you get situated up there and you're facing a window, you're not really going to be looking toward the ground. You're going to be facing the window.
What's a typical job for you?
Right now I mostly do homes and I have a lot of repeat customers. A 2,500-square-foot-plus home goes for about $350, and two-story buildings can go to $600-plus. That's just the outside because most people clean their own inside windows or they have personnel inside to do them. They just don't have anyone to do the outside. I usually have to use a 32-foot to a 40-foot ladder to do some buildings.
What are the tools of your trade, Windex and a squeegee?
I don't use Windex. It's just soap and water and a little bit of bleach. What I do is scrape the window with a razor blade to get all of the excess debris off. (The debris on them) could be paint splatter. It could be dirt that's just been on there for years, new-construction buildup, which has sawdust and Sheetrock dust. It could be bird droppings, paint overspray. It's just a combination of a lot of things ... spider webs is one of the biggest things here in Columbus.
Have you had a particularly difficult job?
Iron Bank Coffee (formerly City Falls Coffee on Eleventh Street) had a lot of silicone on theirs from putting in new windows, because they had to use silicone to keep the window in place. Some of their glass is 6- to 8-foot tall and it had just large amounts of silicone. It takes a lot of great detail with the blade in order to get that stuff off. It's not like you can just run the blade over it and get it all off. You actually have to scrape at it for a little bit. But if you keep the scraper at about a 30-degree angle, it won't scratch the glass. That one took me about three days.
How long would a 2,500-square-foot home take?
About a day and a half. I wash the entire frame of the window with soap, water and a little bit of bleach. I scrape all of the debris off the glass, and then I rewash the glass so that I can squeegee it. It's absolutely beautiful after that.
How often do structures, large buildings specifically, need to have their windows cleaned?
In the climate that we have in Columbus, once a year is about the best. In some places like Atlanta they might have theirs done twice a year. Some homes in certain areas may want to have theirs done twice a year. With the process in which I clean the windows, they stay clearer longer.
Do you use coatings such as Rain-X?
I don't use Rain-X because it can actually give it a hazy look and cause even more streaks. What you don't want are streaks of dirt when looking up at a long window. It can get pretty annoying. The Rain-X works great if you're traveling at a rate of speed. But just putting it on a building that's sitting still, the rain actually is going to build up on the window and bead it up. After it dries and the specks are still left, they end up just staying there and baking on and having spots all over the glass.
So you get satisfaction out of cleaning windows?
When I first started, I didn't think people would like having clean windows, and I really didn't think that they could get much cleaner than they already looked. But after the first six months and doing just a few homes, people were ecstatic about how clear their windows were. They got gratification and satisfaction through a product that they really can't touch, but they can definitely see a difference in.
"I wondered what type of business I could open up that would have a minimum amount of overhead with a high amount of profit," he said. "So I did some research on the Internet and came up with window cleaning and finally figured out a name to give my business. I then started adding friends from Facebook."
Hanks, 35, joked he was looking to find "something as dangerous as electrical work" while paying the bills and setting up a lifelong career. He's on his way, with cleaning jobs on both homes and commercial buildings under his belt.
He hopes the next step will be tackling a high-rise structure, something along the lines of the 18-story Aflac corporate tower or the 14-story Columbus Government Center. To that end, he has completed a rappelling course to get the feel for working in high places.
The Ledger-Enquirer talked with Hanks recently about his job, his preparation and the tools of his trade. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What types of structures are you now cleaning?
I'm doing two-story buildings and up to three-story homes. I am in the process of getting rappelling equipment so that I can start doing high rises. I actually developed and designed a portable crane system that you can take apart and put back together on top of the roof of a building to rappel over and not only do just window cleaning, but any type of exterior maintenance. I've gotten the thing made, but I'm now working on getting the rappelling gear.
So you actually took a rappelling class?
I did. I got certified as a master rappel instructor through a company in Atlanta. They specialize in tactical rappelling for the military. Not only did I learn how to sit in a seat, I also learned how to Aussie rapel, which is face-forward down a building; backwards rappelling, which is regular rappelling; inverted and rescues. That course was about a week.
I take it you don't have a fear of heights?
I have no fear of heights whatsoever. With God on my side I have no fear of anything ... It can be a little queasy, but once you get situated up there and you're facing a window, you're not really going to be looking toward the ground. You're going to be facing the window.
What's a typical job for you?
Right now I mostly do homes and I have a lot of repeat customers. A 2,500-square-foot-plus home goes for about $350, and two-story buildings can go to $600-plus. That's just the outside because most people clean their own inside windows or they have personnel inside to do them. They just don't have anyone to do the outside. I usually have to use a 32-foot to a 40-foot ladder to do some buildings.
What are the tools of your trade, Windex and a squeegee?
I don't use Windex. It's just soap and water and a little bit of bleach. What I do is scrape the window with a razor blade to get all of the excess debris off. (The debris on them) could be paint splatter. It could be dirt that's just been on there for years, new-construction buildup, which has sawdust and Sheetrock dust. It could be bird droppings, paint overspray. It's just a combination of a lot of things ... spider webs is one of the biggest things here in Columbus.
Have you had a particularly difficult job?
Iron Bank Coffee (formerly City Falls Coffee on Eleventh Street) had a lot of silicone on theirs from putting in new windows, because they had to use silicone to keep the window in place. Some of their glass is 6- to 8-foot tall and it had just large amounts of silicone. It takes a lot of great detail with the blade in order to get that stuff off. It's not like you can just run the blade over it and get it all off. You actually have to scrape at it for a little bit. But if you keep the scraper at about a 30-degree angle, it won't scratch the glass. That one took me about three days.
How long would a 2,500-square-foot home take?
About a day and a half. I wash the entire frame of the window with soap, water and a little bit of bleach. I scrape all of the debris off the glass, and then I rewash the glass so that I can squeegee it. It's absolutely beautiful after that.
How often do structures, large buildings specifically, need to have their windows cleaned?
In the climate that we have in Columbus, once a year is about the best. In some places like Atlanta they might have theirs done twice a year. Some homes in certain areas may want to have theirs done twice a year. With the process in which I clean the windows, they stay clearer longer.
Do you use coatings such as Rain-X?
I don't use Rain-X because it can actually give it a hazy look and cause even more streaks. What you don't want are streaks of dirt when looking up at a long window. It can get pretty annoying. The Rain-X works great if you're traveling at a rate of speed. But just putting it on a building that's sitting still, the rain actually is going to build up on the window and bead it up. After it dries and the specks are still left, they end up just staying there and baking on and having spots all over the glass.
So you get satisfaction out of cleaning windows?
When I first started, I didn't think people would like having clean windows, and I really didn't think that they could get much cleaner than they already looked. But after the first six months and doing just a few homes, people were ecstatic about how clear their windows were. They got gratification and satisfaction through a product that they really can't touch, but they can definitely see a difference in.
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2 comments:
Why would it take a day and half to clean a 2500 square foot home. It's never taken me more than 3-4 hours to clean the exterior & interior windows of a home that size
He was talking about washing the home as well (siding ect..) that's where the bleach comes in.
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