Dizzy Heights Of Success For Window Cleaners In News

Dizzying heights of success: Most people can recall the image of a man cleaning a window 34 floors above the ground, without a harness, at the Jumeirah Beach Towers in Dubai this year. But, for those who work on high rise buildings, it is no joking matter when the safety of their employees is paramount. Earlier this year, Swiss company Serbot AG launched a robotic cleaning system for windows and façades on high-rise buildings in Dubai. But, for professional rope technicians there will always be a demand for work because machines are susceptible to breakdowns. ‘I have not actually seen one of the robots in action yet,” said Billy Harkin managing director of Megarme an inspection, repair and maintenance provider that specialises in working at high or difficult accessible locations.

“I do think there is a market for such a product given the amount of glass facades in the region, as long as it was a versatile and reliable piece of kit. I don’t, however, see it as a threat to the industry but more as something that will compliment other such services. “It has been our experience that equipment (BMU’s/access systems/machinery/technical equipment/etc.) is usually susceptible to breakdowns and malfunctions in this type of environment so there will always be a need for ever reliable people services.” The real test for companies that specialise in high-rise building environments is to make sure staff are fully trained to a recognised standard of health and safety procedures to minimise any risk of accident or danger to themselves.

Companies follow a set of guidelines by IRATA (Industrial Rope Access Trade Association), which produce qualifications for trained rope access technicians and access specialists. It is a global qualification with a set of protocols to execute work projects safely including rescue operations. “You need to be prepared for all possible outcomes in this industry especially working in this type of climate where people get dehydrated or tired quickly,” said Robin Gibbs, head of trading divisions for Al Serkal Group. “You need to have a rescue plan in place whereby you get people down according to the IRATA code of practice. Once you have those guidelines in place, you can do anything involving work at height including maintenance, cladding, welding, cleaning, drilling, or painting and you can get in and out safely to do the job.”

The Al Serkal Group is a service provider to the FM industry, handling anything from mechanical engineering, to electrical, plumbing and solutions at height. It recently won a contract to clean high level areas of the glass and steelwork of the Meydan Grandstand which has a giant glass bubble building. Gibbs said the work is a time sensitive project because it has to be completed before the racing season kicks off on November 11 this year. “At any one time, we have four or five projects on the go,” said Ed Buckley, a Level 3 operations manager for SKY Riders, which is part of the Al Serkal Group. “Currently, it is the Meydan Grandstand, glazing and safety netting works at the Presidential Terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport, a full building office clean at the John Buck International Al Mamoura buildings in Abu Dhabi, and on-going work at Dubai Mall, which includes a cleaning service for the food and beverage outlets, where one man will drop down into a 3ft wide vertical duct to clean it inside.”

Buckley said each job has to go through a risk assessment prior to each project to implement a tried and tested safe method of work. “We are talking about projects that are 200m in the air. Each building has its own personality and each job requires its own specification, depending on the client,” he added. “One of our jobs is to make the frame, attach the foliage and hang the lighting banner on the 90ft Christmas tree in Dubai Mall. It’s quite a detailed job but great fun. The most high profile work we have done is cleaning and painting the steelworks inside the seven star Burj Al Arab. It’s a nice sense of achievement to be able to go home and say ‘I did that’,” said Buckley.

Rope access training: Sky Riders currently employ 30 members of staff and each person works on industrial ropes with two points of attachment. It has an affiliation with a training school called Traks Pro which teaches workers how to set the ropes up and how to get each other out in case of an emergency. Level 1 is the entry level for all rope access technicians, Level 2 are experienced technicians who have more training to do with health and safety, knowledge on how to put up the correct rigging and the skills to exercise more technical rescue plans. Level 3 is a senior team leader in-charge of a site and is able to inspect equipment and make site operational decisions. It takes three years to become a supervisor but to start as a novice technician includes a six day intensive training course followed by a day’s assessment exam on site.

WEARING THE PANTS: Whitehorse-born, Tsawwassen-raised Tressa Wood expects to see Wallace-tartan-wearing men climb ladders to clean windows and roof gutters all over North America. She's the CEO of Men In Kilts,which Nicholas Brand and Brent Hohlweg started in 2002 and developed into a 15-staff operation by 2009. The Richmond Chamber of Commerce named them young entrepreneurs of the year. Now, their entrepreneurial eyes are set on the Richmonds in Ontario, Quebec, California, India, Kentucky, Maine, Texas, Virginia, and elsewhere. Enter Wood, who joined Brian Scudamore's 1-800-GOT-JUNK? firm as operations director in 2002 and left as vice-president of operations in 2008. In that time, she said, revenues rose from $10 million to $130 million via some 330 franchisees, many of which she signed.

With 35 staff today, Men In Kilts wants fewer franchisees but with larger operating areas in the one-million-residents range. Wood expects to contract five in 2011 (including Seattle and San Francisco), perhaps 15 in 2012, and a metro-market total between 100 and 150. She's close to two likely early signers. Rob Watson is a 1-800-GOT-JUNK? franchisee, and Nicholas Wood is her four-year husband and father of the eight-month-old and two-year-old children she had while working full-time and taking seven-day maternity leaves.

As for how junk-hauling and window-and-gutter-cleaning differ: "At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? we were pioneering an industry, and had to educate people about the service," Wood said. "This is a very established industry, but not with national franchises or brands." It is also a "fun" industry she said, chuckling about the kilted chap who returned from a particularly windy shift to say: "I'm finally getting the attention I deserve."

Regarding the attention her firm deserves: "You need a more entrepreneurial type of franchisee in the early days, when you are building, testing and refining your systems. They are the types who'll give the feedback you need." They'll also give $60,000 to $120,000 as an entry fee to don their own kilts, "which cost under $100," said Wood, comfortably business-like in tailored slacks.

Marathon man Mike Mackay's weighty challenge: A Montrose man is gearing up to take part in next year's Edinburgh marathon to raise money for two local cerebral palsy sufferers — but not before he loses seven stone. Window cleaner Mike Mackay (34) was inspired to take on the mammoth challenge after hearing of the plight of Rhys Allan (3) and Riley Murray (5). Both boys suffer from severe forms of the disease and Riley's parents need to raise £18,000 to buy him a specially adapted wheelchair. Rhys — who has just returned from a trip to Germany where he received stem cell treatment in a bid to improve his condition — needs physiotherapy and treatment which will cost £9000 per year. Mike said, "Doing a marathon is hard enough — but especially when you have to lose seven stones. "I'm getting weighed weekly and I'm on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet so hopefully that will help." He added, "I'm hoping people will be generous as it's a great cause."

Antón García Abril is 41, but he hasn’t lost his childlike impulse to experiment. Mr. García, an architect, calls it his “madman’s urge to find out” if something can be done. That’s how he explains the urge that drove him to design a house made from pieces of prefabricated infrastructure. The concrete components are affordable and “structurally efficient” and can be assembled quickly, Mr. García said. So quickly, in fact, that the major construction on the two-story house he shares with Débora Mesa, 29, an architect at his Madrid firm, Ensamble Studio, was completed in just seven days, in the summer of 2008. Using a crane, Mr. García’s team assembled the oversize pieces — three giant concrete I-beams originally intended to be part of a bridge, two concrete segments of an irrigation canal and two steel girders — all of which were anchored by a 20-ton granite slab. Once the prefabricated parts were set in place, the structure was enclosed using 35 thick, rectangular pieces of glass. Interior walls, of which there are few, were built using plasterboard.

The remaining work, mostly wiring and plumbing, was finished a few weeks later. The design work, however, took nearly two years to complete. Part of the difficulty was making sure the massive prefabricated parts could be adequately balanced, a painstaking process that involved multiple trials using scaled-down pieces, Mr. García said. The 2,190-square-foot home was built for about 250,000 euros (about $350,000) on a lot Mr. García bought a decade ago (for 200,000 euros, or $280,000) in a gated community here, about 20 miles from Madrid. It has two swimming pools: one in the patio area on the ground floor and the other in a length of irrigation canal cantilevered dramatically from the second floor. Most of the walls are glass, so there is ample natural light, and the couple decided not to install overhead fixtures. There are floor lamps, but only a few. Still, as Ms. Mesa noted: “What we save in electricity, we are paying in window cleaner.”

Junior News and Mail: "The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me" by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Another classic from the genius children’s author that is Roald Dahl, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me is a humorous story complemented by Quentin Blake’s iconic illustrations. Take a giraffe with a magic neck, a pelican with a retractable beak and a very agile monkey, and what do you have? The world’s finest Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company, of course! Together with their friend Billy, they have lots of adventures and come up against the Cobra: the cleverest and most dangerous cat-burglar in the world, meet the richest man in England, and open The Grubber – the most wonderful sweet shop. Published by Jonathan Cape, it’s priced around £7.99 in hardback with 10% of royalties going towards Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity.

Osceola family regroups after house fire: "It's all real patchy," Steve DeGroote says, trying to recall how he dropped his wife out of a second-story window. There were no words. Only actions. He couldn't speak, his lungs stinging with smoke. Moments later, they watched flames eat their family's home. "I feel fine," DeGroote, 42, said Monday. Never mind that he coughed up black stuff for a couple of days. Or that his beard and the small, reddish curls in his hair are burned off. Or that minor burns trace his right hand, wrist, forehead and ears. The house seems a total loss. But the family is counting what they still have. Like insurance on this large, three-bedroom house, which they'd bought in 1997 and updated its dark, funky colors. And like Steve's parents, who have spare rooms in their house for the family. People keep calling and offering help. Clothes show up from neighbors and Colin's kindergarten teachers at Bittersweet Elementary School. "We have good family support system and friends," said Steve, who runs his own power-washing business, D&L Extreme Services.

The British government will review the arrest of six men on suspicion of terrorism during the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom. The six men—all employees of a cleaning firm, and reportedly of Arabic background—were released after police found that they represented “no credible threat” against the Pontiff. A thorough investigation uncovered no evidence that they had engaged in any terrorist plot.

I think Dixon might have mentioned Arsenal's title win at Old Trafford in 2002 a few times. He also told a great story about how - on the day of that game - Arsene Wenger took the whole Arsenal squad, who were wearing team tracksuits, on a walk around Manchester. The players warned him that it was not a good plan but he ploughed on regardless until he was accosted by an irate window cleaner who was furious to find Wenger on his patch. After a bit of face-to-face rage, the boss announced that the team would be swiftly returning to the sanctity of the hotel.

Former Scottish Football Association chief executive Jim Farry has died of a heart attack. The 56-year-old had his family around him when he passed away at Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride. Wife Elaine and children Alyson, 28, and Ewan, 26, were last night at the family home in East Kilbride in shock at Jim’s death yesterday. Jim grew up in a tenement in Holybrook Street, Govanhill, Glas- gow and went on to become a high flying football bureaucrat.The son of an East End cop, he worked as a landscape gardener, milkman and window cleaner before starting life in Scottish football administration.
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The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has missed its deadline yet again to dismantle the tower at 130 Liberty Street. The former Deutsche Bank building, originally slated for demolition in June 2007, was supposed to be torn down by the end of this year. But construction mishaps have again delayed the project, L.M.D.C.’s Director of City Operations Josh Rosenbloom announced at Monday’s Community Board 1 World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee meeting. Rosenbloom attributed the latest holdup to crane problems. “It’s a very sensitive piece of equipment – the slightest little thing goes wrong in the crane, the computer shuts down,” said Rosenbloom. “It’s nothing major, just a couple of small incidents that took the crane out for a period of time.”The L.M.D.C., Flynn added, should have installed double-paned windows in nearby apartment buildings to minimize the noise impact of the demolition. “It’s hard to demolish a building like this without making noise,” replied Rosenbloom adding that he would consult with his colleagues about possibly scheduling a window cleaning in the nearby apartment buildings.
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The Apprentice - week six live blog: Good evening, and a vigorously scrubbed and germ-free welcome to Week 6 of The Apprentice! Tonight is the utterly joyous advertising week, in which the remaining candidates have to create a new brand of cleaning product, then develop an advert to present to present to a load of bored agency types who have taken a break from auditioning drumming gorillas and writing raps that rhyme with "organic yoghurt".  There are two big companies who make ALL the UK's cleaning products, says Alex, in his infinite marketing wisdom. He is of course referring to Procter & Gamble and Unilever, but has of course forgotten Reckitt Benckiser, makers of the likes of Vanish and Finish and Dettol and Cillit Bang, because he knows absolutely cock all about marketing. But I've plugged them now, so all is well.

As a town built for veterans after World War II, Veterans Day has a special place in the Levittown community. Polly Dwyer, president of the Levittown Historical Society, has provided Levittown Patch with photographs and brief biographies on three veterans who are especially significant to Levittown in honor of this holiday. Steve Buczak was a World War II belly gunner in the Army Air Force, Buczak returned to Levittown to establish a window washing company. They washed all the new Levitt house windows. In his retirement he edited many books on histories of local towns and donated the books to the local libraries. The Levittown Public Library and the Levittown Historical Society were among the recipients. He soon joined the Levittown Historical Society and became a board member and then an officer for few years. He assisted Lynne Mattarrese in the society's  book "The History of Levittown, NY".

Architectural Glass: Beauty or Eco-Beast?

Architectural glass: beauty or eco-beast? From an aesthetic point of view, architects and clients specify the interior and external glass for a new building. When it comes to structural integrity, performance and application, engineers rule. If the project requires an inordinate amount of glass, perhaps contractors or value engineers will weigh in with cost-effective alternatives. This is the reality of building in the Middle East, but at the end of the day, who trumps whom?

In the Middle East, does the architect’s opinion reign supreme? Or, are the value engineers the behind-the-scenes budgetary saviours when it comes to making decision on glass? Do building owners or developers really even care what goes where, as long as the building sells? All of these questions beg one last, fundamental question: Is architectural glass a decision of functionality or aesthetics? This much we know: architecture is about creating space. Architects design structures to be experienced. To remove the experiential element from a structure is to render it a sculpture rather than a piece of architecture.

Few materials are as directly responsible for influencing the way in which users experience a structure than glass. Whether its intent is form or function, the versatility of glass is unparalleled. Middle East Architect caught up with building professionals around the world to talk about the importance of using the ‘right’ glass for the right project.

Who’s making the decision? Richard Wagner, architect at dxb lab describes an ideal scenario. “In an ideal nutshell, the architect specifies the type of glass, the engineer verifies that choice, the contractor builds it, and the developer sells a quality project as desired by the clients.” It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to know that in Gulf architecture, things don’t often work that way. In a region where quality can quickly be supplanted by quantity, architects often struggle with contractors and value engineers convincing clients that using a less advanced product will have little influence on how the building looks or performs. Thom Bohlen, chief technical officer at the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development, understands the importance of consulting with qualified professionals when considering glass.

“Architects normally specify glazing for their buildings, but typically they get input from structural engineers, glazing contractors, glazing suppliers and, of course, from the green building consultant,” says Bohlen. “The appropriateness of the U-values of the system, transmittance factors and shading coefficients can all greatly affect energy consumption in buildings.” All too often, however, developers or contractors in the Gulf decide on a type of glass or facade system depending on budget or preference of origin. Specialty engineers are consulted only in the most complex scenarios and architects are left voiceless in the great debate about money.

Is the ‘right’ glass important? Matching the glass system with the style of the building and the context in which it sits is extremely important. The quality of the glass, in terms of structural, physical and thermal properties, is paramount to achieving a building that looks and functions properly. “Especially in hot regions like the Gulf, the energy performance and comfort levels of a building clothed in glass are totally dominated by the choice of glass,” explains James Law, chairman and founder of Hong Kong-based James Law Cybertecture International (JLCI). Having designed several projects for the Middle East and India using glass that does what it promises is crucial for JLCI.

Because glass can range from fully transparent to fully opaque or reflective, and can be specified in virtually any tint or colour, aesthetics is less of an initial concern than function. As Kareem Negm, LEED AP and architect at Dar Al-Handasah (Shair and Partners), points out, ‘function’ in the Middle East means more than just energy-efficiency. Of course, double glazed, low-U glass should be specified externally to reduce solar gain but because of cultural privacy issues, residential projects will almost always opt for fully reflective or dark tints, regardless of efficiency levels of the glass. Internally, however, aesthetics take priority.

Architects - Making Work for Window Cleaners

Looking through the glass: Location may be real estate's best friend, but the view is the home's soul-mate. Windows frame our vision of the outside world. As more people are looking for the best possible perspective, they are also hunting for smart ways to increase the value of their homes. Windows are a good starting point. Newer, bigger, wider, taller, more efficient windows are a hot upgrade and there are options galore.

Christopher Simmonds, one of Ottawa's leading architects, works on the premise that, aside from providing shelter, a house is primarily a place to experience nature from within. "For me, windows are all important. So when we are designing a house, we are always thinking, what are the views trying to capture? Is it a tall tree? Is it a horizon? And how wide should we take the window to capture the view but screen out what we don't want to see, like the side of a neighbour's house or the road." In the past, windows were the absolute weakest link in the home, says Mr. Simmonds, who has crafted a reputation for connecting inside and outside spaces by using a lot of glass. In the early years, when log cabins were the house of choice, people kept windows small for structural reasons and because they let in the cold.

Technologies have vastly improved, even if winters are still raw, and many Canadians are attracted to a Mediterranean concept of living with lots of light. "There is such a desire to open up to the outside, to create integration," says Mr. Simmonds. "Fortunately, we have the technology to go along with it. It's common to see triple-glazed windows with low-e coatings and argon gas, says the architect. "The thermal performance of these windows is significantly better, three or four times better, than windows used to be 25 or 30 years ago."

Manotick Windows and Doors owner Bob Milne has seen a lot of changes in the past 20 years, with owners of older homes and those building new homes looking for the best windows to stop drafts, resist mould and rot and provide security. Typically, they choose from four types of frames that carry their own strengths and weaknesses. These include PVC, fibreglass, wood and aluminum.

• PVC windows

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, are well suited for buyers looking for low maintenance. These windows require no painting inside or outside; and are popular for starter homes right up to million-dollar properties. "You don't have to paint against weather stripping," says Mr. Milne, adding the frames come in trendy colours, including shades of brown, grey, and green. "You don't have to paint against handles or cranks. You just clean your windows." But one of the downsides to PVC is its tendency to expand. So why would you want it? "PVC is the most economical product on the market," says Mr. Milne. "So say windows are $10,000 in PVC, they may be $14,000 in fibreglass." Given that PVC is cost efficient, they are the current industry standard - which is why most companies that make the cranks and the hardware for window companies are designing them mostly for vinyl windows. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $900 to $1,100, installed.

• Fibreglass

Fibreglass has been around for years, but it's still a relatively small player in the world of windows. Its big advantage is that it expands very little, allowing the caulking that holds the seal to outlast other installations. "Fibreglass does not expand any differently than glass," says Mr. Milne. "It's made of glass. It's glass fibres." People concerned about having the highest energy efficiency will search out fibreglass products. But they are more expensive, and there are limitations, such as it's hard to get them made into curves. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $1,300 to $1,500, installed.

• Wood

Wood is the original window frame material, but these days it's used for high-end jobs and comes with regular maintenance. "It's usually someone who appreciates a wood finish on the inside," says Mr. Milne. Given Ottawa's weather extremes, it's hard to keep paint on a wood window. Wooden windows usually have aluminum cladding on the outside and wood on the inside. "Some people forget the wood and let it go. Then it peels inside and it's not as good a look as the vinyl window." The price Wood windows have a bigger price range, just like wood furniture, because there will be different qualities of wood. Prices range between $900 and $2,000 for a 60x60-inch picture window, installed.

• Aluminum

Aluminum has been widely used in high-rises for its strength and longevity, which is of utmost importance when dealing with high winds several floors up. They are light, strong, low-maintenance and easily formed into complex shapes. However, they conduct the cold, so it will tend to be a chillier window. "You go on the balcony of a 17th-floor apartment building and feel the wind blowing. You want a window that's stronger to hold that glass," says Mr. Milne. He says aluminum expands a certain amount too. "It's less than vinyl, but more than wood or fibreglass." The price Similar to vinyl for a 60x60-inch window, ranging from $900 to $1,200, installed.

Life behind a wall of glass: As a nation we Brits like our privacy and generally prefer to play out our home lives with blinds closed and curtains tightly drawn. Not Henry Squire, pictured, who lives in a house in which the entire façade is clad in huge sheets of glass. This floods his rooms with light — but also gives anyone walking through Paradise Park in Holloway, North London, an eyeful of his supersleek kitchen and taste in soft furnishings (white). Contemporary architects have embraced expanses of glass because of the way it maximises natural illumination. Agents say that enthusiasm for this kind of design is growing and prices regularly exceed comparable properties with regular windows.

Squire, 37, is a director of Squire and Partners, the architectural practice working on the controversial Chelsea Barracks redevelopment. Having helped to design the Holloway glass home, he put his money where his mouth was and moved in some six years ago. Living behind a glass wall sounds frightening to the bashful, but Squire has embraced it. “Fear of overlooking is a very English phenomenon,” he says. “You can walk through very nice parts of Chelsea and Belgravia and you are looking straight into people’s houses. It is terribly easy to deal with: you just shut a blind.”

Trevor Abrahmsohn, the managing director of Glentree International, is about to put the glass-heavy Hillside House in Highgate up for sale for about £5 million. “Walls of windows do wonderful things to a room,” he says. “It is almost shocking when you go into a house like that on a dull day and see how bright it is.” Living in a glass house is not without complications, however. “The big issue I have found is maintenance, because unlike brickwork, you do have to clean it,” Squire says. “To keep it looking really good, you ideally need to clean it once every six months, or even every quarter.”

Some environmentalists take issue with glass. But Chris Wilford, head of sustainable design at PRP Architects, says it does not necessarily produce an environmental calamity — boiling in summer and requiring air-conditioning, and expensive and difficult to heat in winter. “There are some fantastic glass products on the market with good insulating value, so you can build houses that are flooded with light but are very efficient too,” he says. “And a lot of glass means you don’t have to have the lights on all the time.” When it comes to investment potential, Paul Jarman, a director of Savills estate agents, says that glass houses do a little better than their brick-built peers. “The young City money would much rather have a glass house than something traditional,” he says. “The sub-forties want a house that has all the latest technology built in and a glass house will have that. “Buyers also like to have nice, open, airy rooms, and by having glass the feel is much more spacious and open and connected to the outside.”

One concern that comes up again and again, though, when it comes to glass houses, is security.
No official data exists about whether you are more likely to be burgled if all your worldly goods are permanently on show. But Abrahmsohn believes that glass houses could actually be a turn-off for burglars. “If you get a bit of glass that is 8ft high and 6ft across, it’s very difficult to try to cut out a portion of it,” he said. “You could cut your leg off. It is also usually toughened and very hard to break and you can’t jemmy it open like you can a rotten window frame. In the trade it is a known fact that they [glass houses] are very hard to get into and therefore burglars hate them.”

The pros:

• Expanses of glass flood a house with light, making rooms feel bigger and taking advantage of any views.
• Natural light eliminates the need to have so many lights on.
• Glass properties are relatively rare and popular with young house-hunters. This can push prices higher than for equivalent, conventionally constructed properties.
• Glass houses are low maintenance — aside from the window cleaning.
• There is no need for painting or repointing.
• Glass houses are usually contemporary and so tend to come with the latest technology, from ambient heating systems to computer-controlled lighting.
  

The cons:

• Some people may find being so exposed a problem, although this can be mitigated with opaque or tinted glass or blinds.
• The glass will need to be cleaned every four to six months, possibly by specialist window-cleaners.
• If whole walls are glass, there is less space for shelves and cupboards, or to hang pictures, than in a conventional property.
• A badly designed glass house can be too hot in summer and very costly to heat in winter. Check the energy performance certificate in the Home Information Pack. Look for a rating of D or better.

Window Cleaners Adapt to Architecture

The most recent edition of the European Cleaning Journal (ECJ) contained an article of the challenges of window cleaning today. Michelle Marshall, Editor of the European Cleaning Journal was kind enough to provide the full print copy to read below.

Cleanable windows - What are the most difficult cleaning challenges that a professional window cleaner has to face? And what equipment has been developed to cope with such tough challenges? Ann Laffeaty looks at aspects of the industry such as high-rise cleaning, large areas of glass and difficult-to-reach areas and discovers how window cleaning is being adapted to make all windows cleanable.

Photo courtesy of Unger

Window cleaning used to be a relatively simple process. One window was much the same as another, after all, and window cleaners required very few tools to carry out their trade successfully. In most cases a ladder, a bucket, a squeegee and a chamois would be sufficient. Where the building was particularly tall, a rail-like structure would be fitted around the top of the building and a cradle would operate from this. But various factors have conspired to complicate the window-cleaning task. On the one side, stringent new health and safety laws have outlawed the practice of cleaning from a ladder above a certain height. Cradles are no longer always a viable alternative either, mainly due to the escalating cost of insurance but also because the shape of modern buildings sometimes makes a rail impossible to fit.

Meanwhile, the fact that architects are becoming increasingly ambitious in their quest for that unique, award-winning design means they are building highly creative structures whose windows are often difficult to clean. Vice-president of Ettore Products Europe Niels Ysbrandy confirms this. “We find that about 10-20 per cent of buildings these days have freaky architecture that looks fantastic and the architects are applauded for it – then six months later the building manager finds it is impossible to clean, or the cleaning cost is 10 times what it should be,” he said. “For example there are buildings that are very difficult to access because they are in a car park or surrounded by hedges or trees. Sometimes it is practically impossible to get to the glass area because it is curved or set at an angle. This can occur in any type of building whether it is an office block, a school or an airport.”

Leaded light windows in historic buildings, pubs and churches also present a problem since these have to be cleaned by hand with a sponge and then a chamois, he said. “Large areas of glass are also a challenge,” added Ysbrandy. “If you have a smooth surface you can clean it very fast and efficiently, but any obstacle will slow down the process.”
According to Ysbrandy water-fed poles have greatly improved the situation. “These can be used from the ground and will clean the windows using pure water, which means there are no mineral deposits on the glass,” he said. “It is not rocket science, but water-fed poles have been the biggest breakthrough in the industry for some years.”

Ettore also offers various tools for hard-to-access cleaning. These include Reach poles that have an angle adaptor claimed to be particularly effective for use on solarium glass. The company also offers telescopic squeegees that combine an absorbent sponge head with a metal handle that extends up to seven feet.
According to Unger’s marketing co-ordinator Alex Droste, one of the major challenges facing today’s window cleaners are the large, high buildings whose entire roof is made of glass. These are often encountered in new train stations and big industrial buildings, for example. “It means you have to walk over the glass in order to access and clean the central areas, which is very hard to do.”

Unger’s answer to high-level cleaning is the HiFlo CarbonTec water-fed pole. This uses aluminium and lightweight carbon tubing to allow the user to customise the length up to 50 feet. “But in terms of height it is limited,” said Droste. “If you have a very complicated job you may need a crane, but then it becomes expensive. Sometimes buildings are cleaned by teams of abseilers but this is not very common in Europe. There is always a high cost and safety factor when dealing with high-rise, complicated buildings.”
He said the growing problem was a by-product of modern building design. “Architects are creating buildings that look very nice, but they don’t ask the window cleaners for their suggestions on how to clean them. Sometimes they are consulted but often they are not – and many window cleaning companies would like to be involved.”

This is exactly what a UK organisation is trying to achieve through the Building Cleanability Awards (BCA). This annual event encourages architects to consider how new buildings are to be cleaned by presenting an award to those designers who create the most 'cleanable' buildings.
The importance of building cleanability is greater now than ever according to BCA chairman Paul Taylor, who is also director of cleaning and facilities management contractor Incentive QAS.
“About 25-30 years ago everything was cleaned by ladder or cradle, but today’s designers have gone mad with their pencils and between them and EU legislation it is very rare that a building these days can be cleaned by ladder,” he said. “Cradles are not always viable because insurance is so expensive and if you look at modern buildings such as the Gherkin in London, where do you fit a cradle?

Another British building that must be a challenge for window cleaners is the Spinnaker Tower that overlooks Portsmouth harbour. It is a 170 metre high structure but the glass doesn’t start until 20 floors up - and then it is in the shape of a sail. You wonder how they clean buildings such as this - as well as other modern structures such as the newest hotel buildings in Dubai. It must be a nightmare.” He says the problem arises from the fact that building owners are increasingly demanding that their buildings should stand out, and architects are keen to deliver on this. “In the US and Australia, building designers consult with the cleaning bodies when designing a building. But in Europe we tend to build to be pretty rather than functional.”

However, this year the BCA has achieved a breakthrough in terms of dialogue with building designers. “For the first time in 16 years, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists have come on board and are helping to promote the Building Cleanability Awards to their architect and design members,” said Taylor. “This will hopefully lead to a new period of co-operation between designers and cleaners.” Director of the Building Cleanability Awards Richard Chisnell added: “We don’t want to cramp the designers’ creativity and make every building a square box, but we would like to encourage them to think how their creations are going to be maintained after the construction team has moved off the site. “Sometimes it is only once that has happened that the penny drops and they think: 'How are we going to clean this?’”
He said factors that should be considered in the design stage were that no trees, hedges or grass were planted too close to the building and that space for parking cherry-pickers was provided. Sometimes windows should be capable of being cleaned from the inside to make life easier for the window cleaners.

According to Chisnell, incorporating cleanable design features into new buildings would go a long way to facilitating the cleaning task while also ensuring the safety of the workforce. “In recent years a whole generation of abseilers have come on to the scene whose task is to clean the highest-rise windows,” he said. “That is fine as long as they comply with health and safety regulations – in fact, it shows that the cleaning industry has done its bit to move with the times.
“But we want to raise the profile of cleaning within the building industry and we are very encouraged by the fact that the designers have said yes, you have a point, we would like to support it.
“In the meantime the window cleaning industry has been sufficiently flexible and adaptable to rise to any challenge. In fact, that’s why we are the thriving industry we are today.”

Photo courtesy of Mr Longarm

Window Cleaning Just Got Harder

Architect David Fisher designs first rotating skyscraper for Dubai and Moscow. Extravagant plans were unveiled yesterday for the world's first swirling skyscrapers, with each floor rotating up to once an hour to form an ever-changing profile on the skyline. The first two towers are to be built in Dubai and Moscow in what the architect describes as a new era of dynamic architecture. David Fisher, who admits never having designed a skyscraper before, said: “My buildings are unique because they are the first ones to rotate — to be dynamic — every second.” The rotating floors will be made of prefabricated units that spin around a concrete core. Most of the floors will be controlled from the architect's laptop, so that they are synchronised to make undulating architectural forms. Owners who buy an entire floor will be able to use voice activation controls to command it to rotate at will, so that they can pick their view. Production of the prefabricated units is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks at a factory outside Bari, in Italy. Mr Fisher said that buyers should be able to move into the completed building in Dubai by the end of 2010. Details of the financing remain unclear because the developers are relying on pre-sales for at least part of the $700 million (£355 million) cost of building the 80-storey skyscraper.