Ungers 9000 Years Of Glass

Unger looks back at 9000 years of glass & how window cleaning originated.

The history of window cleaning: 9,000 years of glass - The material glass looks back on a nine thousand year old history. From prehistoric beginnings via handicraft and manufactu­ring, it found its way into industrial production. With the cost-effective production of glass, the commercial window cleaning industry was also finally born.

Glass is one of the oldest materials around. The discovery of glass date back to the Stone Age, around 7,000 BC. The organized production of glass in the form of jewelry and small jugs began in Egypt approximately four millennia later.

Only in 1861, did the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay introduce the material to wide circles of the population with the cost-effective production of glass. Suddenly, countless office buildings, train stations, administrative buildings and ministries were equipped with massive window facades.

This laid the foundation for the commercial window cleaning industry. Frenchman Marius Moussy founded the French Cleaning Institute in Berlin in 1878. In other cities, Moussy’s former employees started up their own busines­ses. In 1901, the Federation of German Cleaning Institute Entrepreneurs was finally founded. The Göttingen publisher Ernst Kelterborn also published the first trade journal: the International Paper for Cleaning Institutes and Related Lines of Business. The industry experienced enormous growth.  Read more...

Also read: Window Cleaners In Days Of Yore

The first 150 up-and-coming pros who get in touch with us will receive a free Unger starter kit for window cleaning. All apprentices in the building cleaning trade and all participants in the JEZ competition can take part. Simply fill out the online form at here.

The first 150 entries will receive a window cleaning starter kit from Unger, worth over 40 euros. Each set contains a professional 18-litre bucket, a top of the range 35 cm ErgoTec Squeegee, and a 35cm ErgoTec Washer with a microfiber sleeve.

The reason we’re doing this? Sustainability is and remains an important issue in the building cleaning trade. Unger is well aware of its responsibility to future generations and is supporting the JEZ Award as a sponsor for the third year in a row.

Clean magazine not only provides young, up-and-coming pros with an exciting, industry-specific presentation platform; they can also discover fun application tips and insider tricks for using ergonomic and ecological cleaning tools.

Australian Window Cleaners Tied Up In Red Tape

Frustrated: Business owner & window cleaner Selwyn Jones says burdensome legal requirements are harming his small business and others like it.

Contractors struggle with red tape: "Tradies" and other contractors are struggling to cope with requirements to pay for separate registration processes on work safety inductions for each of the hundreds of sites they cover. Window washer Selwyn Jones, of C-Thru Window Cleaning, said he had to submit dozens of pages of paperwork and fees of up to hundreds of dollars for each of his employees at each site they attended.

"I spend most of my time doing inductions because every company has its own course and its own individual requirements," he said. "Every petrol station, every bank, every nursing home, they all have their own inductions, and companies are now charging us to do their induction courses." A nursing home whose windows he had cleaned since it was built had charged him $49.50 for a site induction, he said, and a major retail store had asked for $800 for the right to clean its windows for two years.

Ideally, he said, there would be an industry-wide accreditation scheme similar to the construction industry's white card. "There has got to be somewhere you can go to get your orange card without all these inductions, all these requirements," he said. "It's not about window cleaning; it's about killing small business with red tape and bookwork."

He also mentioned the costs of WorkCover and police clearances as imposts on small business. Member for Hammond Adrian Pederick said such issues were on his radar, and on the small business commissioner's as well. "He believes the codes under workplace health and safety need review, and that's the position of the Liberal Party," he said. "I certainly think there's space there to have a card that lets them visit similar sites over a period of time."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced last week Federal Parliament would hold a "red tape repeal day" within the month to remove more than 9000 individual regulations in an effort to save businesses $1 billion per year. "As Sir Robert Menzies once said, "we want less forms and more reforms"," he said. "We are doing this to make your life easier and our economy stronger."