Routine Danger In Grand Rapids

Sam Rodriguez, with Award Window Cleaning Services, cleans the windows of the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids. The hotel is cleaned twice a year. More pictures at the link.

23 stories up, window washers dangle high above Grand Rapids, MI – Dangling over 200 feet in the air, four men inch their way down the face of the JW Marriott while wiping each window clean. The building's height and its unique shape make rappelling from the roof the most efficient way to ensure that the windows shine on the riverfront hotel that has become a Grand Rapids landmark.

The work is not for the faint of heart. "Terrifying," window cleaner Sam Rodriguez said of his first trip down the JW Marriott. "You finally get to the ground and you almost want to kiss it." One "drop" or trip down the face of the hotel takes more than an hour.

From left, Sam Rodriguez, Brenden Riggins, and Tim Scott, all with Award Window Cleaning Services, clean the windows of the JW Marriott in Grand Rapids.

The first time Rodriguez performed the task as part of the Award Window Cleaning crew, it took him twice the time of an experienced window washer. With each swipe of his squeegee, he felt sure something would go wrong. After six years of working high above the ground, like any other job, it becomes routine. Now, he has to remind himself that it's dangerous and to check and double check his equipment.

What's one thing facing window washers that passersby can't see from the ground? "Spiders," said Mark Reinhart, Award Window Cleaning's president. The eight-legged creatures leave cobwebs for the cleaners and sometimes crawl up their pant legs. Before pesticide use, window cleaners would duct tape their pants and shirts closed to keep them out. Now, there aren't nearly as many, but they still can be found even on the highest buildings in town.

Grand Rapids' most recognizable buildings, including the Amway Grand Hotel, Bridgewater Place and the JW Marriott are cleaned twice a year, moments that often draw the attention of downtown crowds.

Matt Wester, High-Rise Window Cleaner

I've been cleaning windows in high-rise buildings for about seven years. I was looking for a job back when I was 18 when I saw an ad in the newspaper seeking high-rise cleaners. I was a little afraid of heights back then, but I figured it would be a challenge. I tried it out and ended up liking it. Now, the higher the better. Four floors, 40 floors - it doesn't make any difference to me.
We begin the window-cleaning process by taking the elevator all the way up to the top floor. Then we go up to the roof, tie our ropes down and throw them over the side. Then we just rappel down. We sit on a little chair and wear a safety harness. My main tools are an 18-inch squeegee and mop. I have some 22-inch tools that come in handy for the bigger windows And for smaller windows we have what are called cut-ups - little four-inch mops and squeegees. The rest of it is trade secrets. Some of the buildings we clean are the Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk's World Trade Center and a lot of hotels on the Oceanfront. A building the size of the Marriott takes two people two days to do while working steadily. We do what's called a "drop" to clean the glass. That's when you go straight down from the roof to the ground to clean a strip of windows. As soon as you're finished with a drop, you just come back up to the roof, move the ropes over and continue with another drop. You get kind of a rhythm going. You can knock buildings out pretty fast. While I'm up there, I think it's important to know exactly what can happen. So I look down, I look all around. It's possible to fall so you want to avoid that. Once, I was blown around the corner of the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel. I was taking holiday lights down because a hurricane was coming. It was really windy, and the wind kind of just whipped me around the corner, and it didn't let up for about five minutes. I was just stuck there, and I had to wait for it to die down before I could get back to the other side. Most high-rise windows are cleaned once a year, both outside and inside. I haven't seen many people cutting back their window cleanings now because they're trying to save money in this economy. Lately, everybody wants us to come real quick because they have an event going on. A lot of the Oceanfront hotels want their windows washed now because it's almost tourist season. So we want to get in there and get that done before they start getting busy. I've had curtains closed on me pretty fast as I've worked my way down buildings. Most people don't know it's actually really difficult to see in the windows from the outside. People may think we saw more than we did, so they panic. It's funny to see other people at work while we do our jobs. We'll look in an office building and be like, "Hey, they're lucky they're inside on a hot day." They'll look at us and be like, "They're lucky, they're outside on a nice day." Everybody just wants to switch places sometimes.