Close up with Tucker Water Fed Pole Brushes

Alex takes a close up look at the Tucker Water Fed Pole Brushes in our new video!

Check out the products mentioned in the video and more brushes here!

Cleaning Windows For 1 Day Or A Hundred Years?

Post-Tribune columnist Jerry Davich, right, cleans a first-floor window at the Valparaiso campus of Ivy Tech Community College May 25, 2011. Josh Reberg, left and Jacob Hernandez used ladders to get to the second-floor windows. Davich spent the day learning the ropes of window cleaning with the help of employees of Bren-Mark Window Cleaning Service.

Jerry Davich: Five jobs in five days, starting with cleaning windows - Today’s column is the initial installment of my “five jobs in five days” series where I work a few hours at five different occupations to experience the challenges of, ahem, a real job. First up, I join the streak-less ranks of Bren-Mark Window Cleaning service in Valparaiso during a “monster job” at Ivy Tech Community College on the city’s east side.

Jerry Davich

Candy Smith chuckled at my amateur attempts to properly clean a large office “practice window” using a professional mop and squeegee. No matter which technique I used — the horizontal swipe, the vertical swipe or the tricky swirl swipe — I left a streak or two somewhere on the window pane. It was very frustrating. Although I sported an official Bren-Mark T-shirt and tool belt, to hold my sopping-wet mop and bucket, two squeegees and clean-up towels (a white one to clean the sill, a blue one for the pane), washing windows was tougher than it looks from inside an office building. “Sometimes a window just doesn’t like you,” Smith told me sympathetically after I left yet another streak of soapy water on the window near the firm’s Valparaiso office.

Smith, the firm’s operations manager, has been here 11 years after starting as a window cleaner. She knows windows inside and out, and she made it look easy to clean them. Despite popular belief, it doesn’t matter which brand of soap is used, Smith told me. (On this day, we used Palmolive dish soap.) The secret is how to squeegee. “OK, now I’ll show you how we really clean windows” she told me as she swept her squeegee from corner to corner and back around in a swirl motion. “It’s all in the wrist.”

Within five seconds, without lifting her squeegee from the window, she removed every trace of soapy water. Amazing, I told her. “You’ll get the hang of it eventually,” she replied. (I never really did, though.) Some new employees get scared off after the first day, complaining it’s either too hard, too strenuous, too repetitive or too confusing. Others simply don’t return the next day. Still, after a half hour of practice, we headed to the day’s work site, Ivy Tech Community College, on the city’s east side for a “monster job.”

How hard can it be? At Ivy Tech, which is seemingly made from various shapes and sizes of eye-catching glass, I met with Bren-Mark’s owner, Don Markovich. “When an architect draws huge buildings like these, with so much glass, the drawing never has dirty windows,” joked Markovich, a stocky man with thick arms and a no-nonsense attitude. “But it’s our job to make them look like they did in the drawing.” Bren-Mark has experienced a 10 percent growth spurt each of the last two years, an impressive statistic these days for any business. The firm is known for charging top dollar for a high quality job. There are no contracts, per se, just a lot of repeat customers, from both residential and commercial accounts.

“Just about every piece of glass you see will be cleaned at some point by somebody,” Markovich said during a tour of the work site. “Most people think of window cleaners as hanging off high rise buildings or maids on ladders with Windex and paper towels. We are somewhere in the middle.” Some of the firm’s customers get their windows cleaned once a month or even weekly, while others only once a year. But if windows remain dirty for too long, it only makes the job that much harder, especially if the business is located near grimy steel mills.

Josh Reberg cleans windows at the Valparaiso campus of Ivy Tech Community College May 25, 2011. Reberg works for Bren-Mark Window Cleaning Service based in Valparaiso.

 Bren-Mark’s niche is “low-rise” buildings, three stories or below, simply because there aren’t many high-rise buildings in Northwest Indiana. “Once you go over three stories, equipment requirements and cost of insurance jumps dramatically,” he added. Standing outside Ivy Tech’s main building, Markovich handed me a towering “Tucker pole,” a long, heavy extension tool which uses filtered water to clean high-rise windows with a spot-free rinse. Unfiltered water has minerals that leave stains on windows, and steel wool is often used for such stubborn windows, I learned.

He explained that his job takes a certain mix of intelligence, friendliness, persistence, professionalism and good old-fashioned elbow grease. “Cleaning windows is a simple business — it’s not called Bren-Mark Rocket Science — but it is not easy,” Markovich said as I slowly guided the long (and did I say heavy?) pole back and forth across each window. “We have to provide service, without any mistakes or problems, on schedule to hundreds of commercial customers and dozens of residential customers each week. This can total up to thousands of individual windows, even in the extreme cold.”

Not rocket science, but… In addition to using the Tucker pole, I also climbed to the roof of the building to clean outdoor windows overlooking a lobby. With the sun beating down, I worked alongside Josh Reberg, Scott Sliger, and Jacob Hernandez, who showed me the ropes of the job as well as how to use extension ladders to clean second story windows. Bren-Mark workers say they’re often asked, “How hard can it be to clean windows?” “We don’t just spray Windex on a window and wipe it off,” Hernandez told me. “We make it look easier than it is. It took me a few months to get it down.”

Inside the school building, I worked alongside veterans Mary Martin and Marlon Sayles, an older man who’s taught many other professional window cleaners through the years. Together, we stood on a high-lift machine to clean second and third story windows. Sayles didn’t say much so neither did I. My only goal was to not slow him down. Bren-Mark workers routinely begin their work day at 8:30 a.m. and they go home when their list of jobs for the day is done. Some days end earlier than others.

 Post-Tribune columnist Jerry Davich uses a squeegee to clean a window at the Valparaiso campus of Ivy Tech Community College May 25, 2011. Davich spent the day learning the techniques of window cleaning.

They are paid per job, based on a percentage, with new hires earning 31 percent of the total price and more experienced workers earning 35 percent, Reberg said. This averages between $15 to $20 an hour, depending on their speed, experience and quality of work. An agreed perk of their job is the freedom to work at different locations without having a boss always looking over their shoulder in a (windowless) office. The toughest part of the job is often gaining access to clean windows, and I can vouch for that after straddling a tipsy ladder planted in mushy grass.

Another downside of the job is cleaning off more than merely dirt from windows. For instance, bird droppings, rotten eggs and paintball remnants. “You name it, we’ve seen it all on windows,” Markovich told me. As I cleaned yet another dirty window while wondering how much longer until my lunch hour, I had a minor epiphany: I don’t want to be a professional window cleaner. Or, as they say in the trenches, the job is a pane in the glass.

Springfield janitorial service achieves rare century mark: Springfield janitorial service achieves rare century mark. Witenko Enterprises Inc. began a century ago this year when a man who fled the Ukraine in the late 1800s began washing downtown Springfield windows to make money. Dmitri “Jim” Witenko began in 1911 what became a 100-employee company by going door-to-door offering the service. It was a time when dozens of manufacturing facilities, stores and office buildings populated the city center and beyond; the demand for window cleaning was high, according to current and third-generation president Mike Witenko.

Early on, Dmitri Witenko’s window cleaning service weathered such significant events in human history as the Great Depression and World War I before incorporating formally in the 1930s as the Springfield Window Cleaning Company. Few companies can claim such longevity as Witenko Enterprises, and even fewer can claim a fourth-generation family company. Kristina Witenko, Mike Witenko’s daughter, joined the company in 2005 and currently serves as operations manager. She plans to be the family’s fourth-generation president in the future, she said.

A search by the Clark County Historical Society of 1911 business directories resulted in only a handful of companies known to be operating locally in some fashion today. Companies with recognizable names like Littleton & Rue Funeral Home, International Harvester, Chakeres Theatres, James Leffel Co. and Woeber Mustard join a few others in that select club. As demands declined, Witenko Enterprises found it necessary to fold together some operations and cease others. Employment is down significantly from its peak of nearly 100 workers in the 1970s. “As need disappears, you back off,” said Mike Witenko, who joined the company in 1968. “When need goes down, we have to make a decision (to stop operations).” “Business has always been up and down, but this might be the worst,” Mike Witenko said of the current economic climate.

Staffing now is down to 10, but Mike Witenko said things appear to be turning around. “We’re seeing see good signs coming, but it’s going to take a while to build back up,” he said. Tom Kaplan, Ness Chair in Entrepreneurship and associate professor of business at Wittenberg University, said a long-running family business has a different approach than others. “It’s the stewardship mind-set,” Kaplan said. “It’s the way that you run a business. You’re not looking at meeting the next quarter’s goals. You’re thinking ‘I’ve got grandkids and what do I need to do’ ” to get them and the business ready for the company’s future.

As economic times evolved, so did Witenko Enterprises, launching a host of other service businesses and a venetian blind sales and service division. In 1945 it added window blind sales and service to their list of companies. That chance paid off when Levolor blind company named Springfield Venetian Blind Sales & Service a national distributor. Then, in the 1950s, the window cleaning service added an inside and outside wall cleaning service under the leadership of Dmitri Witenko’s son, George Joe Witenko. That same decade, the company took another chance and added Springfield General Maintenance to their list of services. The division tackled jobs like cleaning the facade of the Clark County Courthouse and cleaning ink from the walls and ceiling of the Springfield News and Springfield Sun’s press room.

The next decade George Joe’s son and Mike Witenko’s brother, then president George Louis Witenko, saw more room for expansion and opened Springfield Janitorial Services. In 1960, the company brought its many divisions together under the umbrella Witenko Enterprises Inc., which exists today mainly as a janitorial service. It reached peak staffing levels of close to 100 in the late 1970s. Said Wittenberg’s Kaplan: “A fourth-generation company is unbelievably rare, and it’s not an accident.”

R.I.P Window Washer - Gandy Ochoa

Window washer electrocuted in Huntington Beach.

A man washing windows at a three-story medical building was killed Tuesday morning when an extension rod he was using came in contact with a 12,000-volt power line, authorities said. The incident was reported about 6:30 a.m. at Beach Boulevard and Newman Street, said Jeff Lopez, deputy fire marshal with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. The body was lying on the sidewalk on Newman Street, adjacent to the Beach Medical building in the 17700 block of Beach Boulevard about four hours after the accident. The Orange County Coroner's Office removed the body about 10:30 a.m.

Jeff Lopez, deputy fire marshal with the Huntington Beach Fire Department, said the man was using an aluminum extension rod to reach the third story with his brush. "It came into contact with the power line, which shorted to the ground and electrocuted him immediately," Lopez said. It appears the man was walking around a tree when his equipment touched the power line, Lopez added. Coroner's Office officials identified the man as Gandy Ochoa, 27, a Pomona resident. Power was out while authorities removed the worker's brush, which hung from the power line above the sidewalk on Newman Avenue. The office building was briefly evacuated, Lopez said.

Yesterdays sad breaking news with video here.

An Southern California Edison lineman gets ready to disconnect the power after a window washer was electrocuted when his washing equipment touched a power line running along Newman Avenue behind Huntington Beach Hospital this morning about 6:30 a.m.

A Southern California Edison lineman disconnects the power to a line running along the North side of Huntington Beach Hospital on Tuesday morning. A window washer was electrocuted when his washing equipment touched the power line running along Newman Avenue behind the hospital.

A window washer's brush hangs from the power line above the sidewalk on Newman Avenue in Huntington Beach this morning after the washer was electrocuted near Huntington Beach Hospital about 6:30 a.m.

A Huntington Beach police officer places a barrier to block the view of the body of a window washer who was electrocuted while washing the windows of a medical building next to Huntington Beach Hopsital this morning. The window washer was electrocuted when his washing equipment touched a power line running along Newman Avenue.

Initially people thought that the fire by the roadside was a downed cable, but it turned out to be the perished victims body alight.

Another Water Fed Pole Electrocution

Worker Electrocuted to Death in Huntington Beach: MyFoxLA.com

Worker Electrocuted to Death in Huntington Beach: Huntington Beach - A man washing windows at a medical office building in Huntington Beach was killed today when the equipment he was using came into contact with a 12,000-volt electrical line, authorities said. The accident happened at about 6:30 a.m. at Beach Boulevard and Newman Avenue, according to the Huntington Beach Police Department. The worker, whose age and name were not immediately released, was standing on the ground and washing windows of the three-story building when the accident occurred, Huntington Beach fire Capt. Jeff Lopez said. "He was using a long extension rod with a brush at the end of it ... and he had to step around a tree, it appears -- And as he did so, he brought the brush and the extension rod away from the building, and he came in contact with the power lines above him -- 12,000-volt power lines -- and tragically, it killed him." The building was partially evacuated briefly as a precaution while firefighters determined that the power line was secure and not posing a hazard, Lopez said.

A man washing windows at a three-story medical building was killed Tuesday morning when an extension rod he was using came in cotact with a 12,000-volt power line, authorities said. The incident was reported at about 6:34 a.m. at Beach Boulevard and Newman Street, said Jeff Lopez, deputy fire marshal with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. The body was lying on the sidewalk on Newman Street, adjacent to the Beach Medical building at 17742 Beach Blvd for about four hours after the incident occurred. The coroner's office removed the body at about 10:30 a.m. Jeff Lopez, deputy fire marshal with the Huntington Beach Fire Department, said the man was using an aluminum extension rod to reach the third story with his brush. "It came into contact with the power line which shorted to the ground and electrocuted him immediately," Lopez said. It appears the man was walking around a tree when his equipment touched the power line, Lopez added. Power was out while authorities removed the worker's brush that hung from the power line above the sidewalk on Newman Avenue. The medical office building was briefly evacuated and is now fully occupied, Lopez said. The worker's name and age were not immediately released.

Water Fed Pole Electrocution - New York - Window Cleaner Doing Well

SI Window Washer Survives 33K Volt Shock: Nicholas Genovese sat in his hospital room, his hands and feet still bandaged, and called his survival a "miracle.""I am not the best Catholic," the Staten Island window washer admitted.  "But I am going to start going to church again this Sunday." Genovese, 58, survived a jolt of thirty-three thousand volts of electricity while cleaning the windows of a Lynbrook office building Saturday. He and partner Alan Weinberg, 64, of Long Beach, apparently lost control of their forty feet long cleaning pole in the high winds, according to Lynbrook fire department spokesman Steve Grogran.

Both window washers were on the sidewalk outside the building, maneuvering the aluminum instrument toward the windows above, when it was blown onto high tension wires near the building.
"They probably shouldn't have been attempting that in those conditions," Grogan said. Both window washers were immediately knocked to the ground. "I blacked out for a second," said Genovese. "Then I felt the electricity run through my body." Genovese suffered third degree burns on his hands and feet but may have survived, said Grogan, because he did not have a firm grip on the pole. Weinberg, however, WAS holding it firmly in both hands and was badly injured. "He had no vital signs for nearly twenty minutes," said Grogan.

Lynbrook volunteer firefighters refused to give up their battle to save him and, with help from Lynbrook and Nassau police officers, finally restored Weinberg's pulse after three jolts from a defibrillator. Weinberg remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, according to a spokesperson for Nassau University Medical Center. Both window washers are now being treated there. Genovese, a father of three, usually serves as a window washer for NYRA; but was on this job as a way to make extra money this holiday season. He promised to be back out there as soon as he is healed; but will forever count his blessings. "I am very lucky," Genovese said. "You never expect something like this to happen to you."

Workers electrified in Lynbrook accident: Two workers were seriously injured in Lynbrook on Saturday when the 40-foot pole they were both holding was blown into a power line, causing a severe shock to both men. According to detectives, two men working for Hewlett Window Cleaners were preparing to wash the windows at Bank of America, at 300 Merrick Rd. using a telescoping 40-foot washing pole (pictured above). Nicholas Genovese 58, of Staten Island was holding the pole at the top of a ladder, while his co-worker, Alan Weinberg 64, of Long Beach was standing on the ground holding the bottom of the pole. A gust of wind blew the pole into a nearby power line, causing serious injury to both Genovese and Weinberg.

Weinberg was in cardiac arrest when police arrived. Lynbrook officer Doug King and NCPD Detective Gary Ferrucci began CPR, followed by Lynbrook firefighters, who were responding to a house fire on Robertson Road when they were notified of a second call for the reported “electrocution,” said fire department spokesperson Steve Grogan. "The Emergency Medical Company was three blocks away and was immediately diverted to the bank," he said. Grogan said that Weinberg was lying on the sidewalk in front of the bank when medics arrived, and his co-worker, Genovese, was lying nearby, being attended to by Lynbrook Police Officer Sal Sedita. At that point, firefighters and other Emergency Medical Technicians arrived and took over in attempting to revive Weinberg who had no pulse and was suffering burns to his hands and feet. Genovese was also suffering burns, but was conscious.

Both window washers were holding the 40-foot pole with a brush on one end as they cleaned the third story windows of the bank, when a gust of wind sent the pole into a 33,000 volt power line running along Merrick Road. Both were electrified and thrown to the sidewalk, with Weinberg going into cardiac arrest. For over 20 minutes, Grogan said, firefighters performed CPR and defibrillated Weinberg without success and without re-gaining a pulse. Finally, after being defibrillated - or shocked - a third time, he was finally revived in the Emergency Medical Company ambulance on the way to the hospital. "Electricity killed him and electricity brought him back to life," said Grogan.

Weinberg was transported to South Nassau Communities Hospital where he was stabilized and then transferred to Nassau University Medical Center Burn Unit for treatment of third and fourth-degree burns to his hands and feet. He is reported to be in very critical condition. Genovese was taken to Nassau University Medical Center and admitted to the Burn Unit for treatment of second and third degree burns. He is in stable condition, according to police. Fire officials also reported that Weinberg’s brother was shocked in a similar type incident some 20 years ago on Freer Street in Lynbrook. He survived.

Staten Island man survives 33,000-volt shock though his body: On Saturday, Nicholas Genovese took what could have been a fatal dose of electricity - 33,000 volts coursing through his and a fellow window washer’s body as they worked on a Long Island bank. Pictured above Joann Genovese dances with her husband, Nicholas. He could be out of the hospital by the weekend. Yesterday, Nicholas Genovese, 58, of Oakwood, was well enough to watch from his hospital bed as the New York Giants beat the Jacksonville Jaguars. Genovese, who has two daughters, ages 19 and 17, is recovering and in good spirits in a burn unit at Nassau University Medical Center, his wife, Joann, told the Advance last night.

“He just blacked out for a second,” Mrs. Genovese said. Genovese is slated to get skin graft surgery for his badly-burned hands and feet today or tomorrow, and may be out of the hospital as early as the weekend, she said. Genovese and a friend, Alan Weinberg, 64, were working for Hewlett Window Cleaners and preparing to wash the windows at a Bank of America branch in Lynbrook, L.I., with a 40-foot telescoping washing pole at about 7:30 a.m. Saturday when a wind gust pushed the pole into a power line. Weinberg was in cardiac arrest when police arrived. They performed CPR, and paramedics from the Lynbrook Fire Department continued treatment.

Weinberg was stabilized at South Nassau Communities Hospital and subsequently moved to Nassau University Medical Center Burn Unit for treatment of second- and third-degree burns to his hands and feet. He was in critical condition, but according to published reports is expected to survive. Mrs. Genovese said her husband called her from the hospital, at first telling her, “I had a problem.” When she asked him what happened, and if he had been in a car crash, he told her, “No, I got electrocuted.” “I was in shock. I said, ‘What? Are you going to be alright?’” she recalled. Genovese, who works at the Aqueduct Race Track and Belmont Park, was supposed to be on vacation this weekend, but took on the window washing job as a side gig, his wife said. “I’m lucky he’s not dead,” Mrs. Genovese said. “By rights, we’re supposed to be in the funeral parlor.”

First news release here.

See previous electrocution with water fed poles here & here.
Safety guidelines for water fed pole users here.
Solar Panel cleaning here.
Extreme study here.

The first water fed pole

I know everyone seems to think that Tucker were the first to produce wfp's in the world, or Tucker UK (now called Aquafactors) if you live on this side of the pond. But its just not true! Thanks again to Shawn from "Reach Higher Ground" for providing the evidence. Robin Tucker in his rather sparse blog & claiming to have "the original water fed pole system" could be up against Albert & Herman from Detroit on this one! Only it was 14th May, 1895 they filed saying, and I quote "this window cleaning brush having a water supply pipe for delivering a supply of water to the brush in cleaning the window". Click on the image to study the detail.

Robin Tucker with his "New Product".