Three Window Cleaners For Monday

“Just like with almost anything, you get what you pay for,” Frei said. “Once I do a job, the results speak for themselves. It’s a professional result and the client can see the difference.”

Frei describes being an entrepreneur at heart - It’s often been said that entrepreneurs are born, not raised. While there may be disagreements on that particular theory, it’s clear that the enterprising bug is certainly more prevalent in some than others. Meet Jessie Frei. Originally a native of Port Orchard, Washington, Frei was serving on a church mission in Georgia from 2005 to 2007, when he ultimately met his future wife, Janna. For Frei, that’s all it took for him to relocate. 

Now as a husband and father of two, he currently works 40 hours a week as an aviation mechanic for one of the biggest airlines based out of Atlanta. For many, this seems like an ideal scenario – a steady job with a large company, equipped with a skill set that allows him to work almost anywhere in the aviation field. But for Frei, he felt like there was a missing piece of the puzzle. While he thoroughly enjoyed his work and family life, Frei still longed for the independent spirit that running a small business provides. 

After careful consideration regarding overhead, costs, and inventory, the answer to his question came when he decided to form Clear Window Cleaning LLC. One might ask what would inspire an airplane mechanic to venture into such a specific line of work. His answer is just as pragmatic as the business itself. “I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” Frei said. “I just enjoy working – the feeling of building something from nothing. It’s something I’ve always held a fondness for.” Even while Frei maintained a healthy schedule between his full-time job and his family, that didn’t mean his own part-time job would reflect a drop in expectations or quality. 

Starting from the ground up in a new place is not always the easiest thing to do. When you have a standard of professionalism and attention to detail that Frei embodies, it can be even harder. While many in his industry can provide a cheaper price, he doesn’t feel the need to compete. Frei affectionately defines an amateur window cleaner as a “Bucket Bob” – someone who will undercut the cost of a job so dramatically, he doesn’t even feel that they are in the same league as what his Clear Window Cleaning has to offer. “Just like with almost anything, you get what you pay for,” Frei said. “Once I do a job, the results speak for themselves. It’s a professional result and the client can see the difference.” 

The reaction he gets from customers is just another reason why Frei enjoys running his own business. As the owner, Frei believes that it is imperative that his work reflects the standard that he has set for himself and the company. For him, it’s not just a side job to make a little extra money. It’s a part-time job that runs on a professional level. “A lot of those ‘Bucket Bob’ guys aren’t licensed, they aren’t insured – and with workers comp, that’s a huge gamble for customers,” Frei said. “If anything goes wrong, the homeowner is on the hook. So when people wonder why these individuals can bid out jobs for so little, that’s the reason why.” 

Frei jokes that the first warning sign of an amateur window cleaner is the presence of Windex. “I don’t know of a single professional company that has ever implemented Windex,” Frei said. “We use a standard, professional grade cleaner and surgical towels. They’re lint free.” As a small business owner, Frei understands the power of brand name and reputation. Upon acquiring his business licence and insurance, he began canvassing neighborhoods and businesses to inquire about their window cleaning needs. The customers who were using the Bucket Bob variety quickly saw the discernible difference in Frei’s work, and through his tireless work ethic and concrete results, word quickly spread about Clear Window Cleaning. 

While his company services the entire metro-Atlanta area and beyond, Frei still experiences a great flexibility in terms of setting his own schedule. And even though the business is growing at a pace that Frei feels comfortable with, staying debt-free remains one his greatest priorities. “The most common question I get from clients is about pressure washing,” he said. “There is always a huge demand for it. Having a pressure washer would definitely be a blessing, but one of my core rules is to never spend money that I don’t have. While I could probably buy one on credit and have it paid for after a few jobs, I just wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it that way.” 

As long as he continues to enjoy what he’s doing, Frei sees no reason to stop. While he may cite the ups and downs of the aviation industry, one can’t help but feel he enjoys having his own business regardless of the economic climate. “When your work has a reward that you can see with your own eyes at the end of a job, it just further solidifies my feeling that I love what I do.”

 Neil Burton and Marcus Norton of M N Window Cleaning, Long Sutton.

Ex-cop and soldier takes on new beat cleaning windows: When Neil Burton (39) is cleaning windows in Long Sutton, Sutton Bridge and Holbeach, there is no clue of the time he spent in the Army and police force. The father-of-two from Long Sutton spent seven years in the Grenardier Guards before serving as a police officer with Norfolk Constabulary for 15 years. But when long-time friend Marcus Norton (44), also of Long Sutton, offered Neil a chance to work for himself as a franchisee with Marcus’s business M N Window Cleaning, the offer was one that appealed.

Neil said: “I’d known Marcus for 13 years and also known that he’d built up an enviable reputation for reliability and trustworthiness with his firm. “When the opportunity came along earlier this year to become a franchisee with his business, I was interested because I’d be in charge of my own destiny. “It was an interesting prospect to run my own business and over the years I spent in the police and Army, I gained a lot of attributes that have transferred well to what I’m doing now.”

Neil left behind a life that included a role in four Trooping the Colour ceremonies, annually celebrating the Queen’s Official Birthday in June, and a two-year tour of duty in Northern Ireland prior to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 which set up devolved government in the country. Marcus said: “I’m really grateful that Neil came on board with me because I know he’s the right person for the job. “He’s a good worker, a professional person, trustworthy, has common sense, a good eye for detail and is good with people.”

Neil said: “It was monumental for me to change from doing something that people regard as one of the most secure occupation you can have to something that’s insecure. “But I’ve never looked back, I feel good for being outdoors all the time and I’m giving people a service.”

BED VALUE: The window cleaner has sex with her – and charges

Just Jane: My window cleaner lover makes me pay for sex -  I love his touch, but hate the fact that he still charges me for his visits. The problem is that his harridan of a wife runs his bookings and his money.

She knows how many calls he does each day, how long they all take, and how much he should be bringing home each week. He says he’s very sorry, but if he returns home short, then she’ll smell a rat and suspect that something is up. Well, something is up, and it’s happening in my bedroom on the third Wednesday of every month.

He’s booked, officially, to tackle my conservatory. But I fancy him so much that I can’t resist dragging him up to bed every time he calls. There we make passionate love in a frenzy of lust and abandonment. He’s just so hot that I can’t get his clothes off quickly enough. He’s cheeky with a great body and real baby face. All of the women around here fancy him and would love to shimmy with his chamois like I do… He laughs at how hungry and horny I am, but if he had my pathetic life, then he’d be anxious for excitement too. My husband is away all the time and doesn’t even know I exist.

We haven’t slept in the same room together for three years and he never even bothers to ring when he’s away. In contrast, my window cleaner’s wife is on to him like a flea. She rules the roost and he’s so terrified of her that he still charges me – even if he hasn’t got his rag wet. I realise he’s ripping me off and taking the pee, but what can I do when I desire him so much – and he knows it?

Jane says: How can you allow yourself to be used like this? Your cheeky non-window cleaning lover may have the face of angel, but he’s as wily as they come. So his wife is tricky, is she? Well, I bet she’s not half as tricky as he is. I can almost guarantee that you aren’t the only sex-starved woman he’s bedding or ripping off.

He’s clearly got his script off pat: “I’m very sorry, love, you have to pay me or I’ll get into trouble with the wife.” He’s a three-way winner. Not only does he get to bed you – and gets paid for it – but he doesn’t have to bother scrubbing your grubby conservatory either. Result.

Do yourself a favour and switch to a different company. Vow to sort your life out and start again. If things with your errant husband aren’t right then speak to him the next time he’s home and tell him that you can’t – and won’t – go on like this. Can your relationship be saved? Is he willing to talk about your problems and consider relationship counselling? If not, then is there really any point in you and he staying married if all you’re doing is keeping house and going through the motions?

Three Window Cleaning Videos For Thursday

Jurgen, the window cleaner - he doesn't dance.

Somersby cider man dance (Denmark) - What happens when a window cleaner who thinks he can't dance brings his work to a bar? Why, he gets jiggy with it and the entire bar approves. I just had an 80's teen movie flash back...

As they see it: Window washer on a high-rise (Jacksonville, Fla.)  - Take a look at a different point of view. Have you ever looked up at a crew cleaning the windows of a high-rise building and wondered, 'What in the world is it like for them up there?' Some nifty technology gives a first-person look at interesting jobs. Tonight, see what it's like to be the guy who has to wash windows high off the ground.

York owners of racehorse Anderiego look for success: The owners of the racehorse Anderiego, including a mechanic, window cleaner and market stall holder, have said it is a "dream come true" when he wins. The syndicate is hoping for success at the Dante Festival on Thursday, at York Racecourse's first meeting of the season. Trainer Dave O'Meara said: "When you can pull it off for a group of people like that, it's making a lot of people very, very happy and it's good to see." 

Three For Thursday

The staff devised a scaffold system to clean the museum windows from the outside.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas: Every detail of opening the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was planned as carefully as possible but everyone on the staff knew there would be issues come up that couldn’t have been seen ahead of time. Flexibility would be the proverbial name of the game and in the first year of the museum, that philosophy has worked well for the museum. There is a common theme threaded through most unexpected issues that came up in the museum’s first year: numbers. Based on research made at other museums in similar-sized markets, planners hoped for about 250,000 guests with about 3,000 members joining the museum the first year.

Those figures were blown out of the water. As of Nov. 4 this year, a week short of the museum’s one-year anniversary, the museum welcomed more than 595,000 people and has more than 7,500 "Original Members." Such members are anyone who joins the museum until Nov. 30 and those members are afforded additional benefits to their membership. More guests means more food has been ordered, more employees hired, schedules altered and even more parking has been necessary. Those issues are just some of the lessons learned during Crystal Bridge’s first year. “The first year is always trial and error,” said Diane Carroll, media relations manager. “We’ve been adapting to the overwhelming response.”

Cleaning the museum is another major task, something that usually happens on Tuesdays and at night when the museum is closed. Museum visitors are treated to countless windows that let them see the natural beauty on the outside of the museum while they peruse the works of art inside. The problem with so many windows is how to clean them in a way that is safe for personnel and the environment. The curved windows that overlook the ponds create special challenges for the staff. They created a pontoon boat system that allows them to float to the outside of the windows to clean them using ionized water that doesn’t have chemicals.

“Whatever we put in the water has to be green,” Eccleston said. “We’re an eighth of a mile from the water treatment plant so anything we put in the water (including runoff from the landscaping) must be very neutral and green.” The entire staff takes managing the facility and grounds very seriously. “All of it is a shared resource with not only our visitors but the animals that live here,” he said. Although the drastic increase in numbers has created challenges, the museum staff and volunteers are grateful that so many people have appreciated the museum. “It completely furthers the vision of the museum to bring art, architecture and nature to a wide audience,” Carroll said.

WORTH THE CLIMB: Luke Rayner with the diamond ring he found on a roof.

Window cleaner finds diamond ring on rooftop of Sandbanks house: A window cleaner saw a different kind of shine when he found a diamond ring on a Sandbanks house during work. Luke Rayner, 24, from Queen’s Park, who runs Harvard Window Cleaning, stumbled across the find when he climbed on to the roof of the property, Emporio, on Brudenell Avenue, ready to clean the next part of the building. He said: “I was cleaning one of the windows of the house which is for sale, when I climbed up on to the roof, which is flat.

He added: “I was just looking at the bird spikes, when I saw something. I looked away – but then, when I looked back, I saw it and I thought: ‘Bloody hell, it’s a diamond ring.’ ”  “It was in among some leaves and twigs, so a bird must have taken it there. “It’s quite incredible really. “It must have been a bird, which likes shiny things.”

Luke says that he would love to know how it got there but may never find out. He said: “I mean, it’s not a fantastically large ring but it’s a diamond ring nonetheless. “I don’t know how much it is worth. You would have to get it valued for that but it’s a diamond ring, so it could be worth a fortune. “I think I could be the luckiest window cleaner ever. “I’m going to hand it into the police, and then people can have a better look at it, if they think that it is theirs.”

Licences required to clean building facades in Abu Dhabi: Cleaning companies must now obtain a maintenance licence before undertaking any work on building facades and windows in the capital, the Municipality of Abu Dhabi City announced in a statement sent on Wednesday. Any companies in the sector found to be violating municipal health, safety and environment (HSE) standards will face fines ranging from Dh10,000 to Dh20,000. The municipal decision and revised fines come after a spate of recent accidents and near-accidents in the capital involving workers cleaning building facades.

While two window cleaners were killed in October when their scaffolding collapsed, four others were rescued by the Abu Dhabi Police in two separate incidents last month. “Scaffolding equipment is considered to be among the top risks posed to workers,” said Abdul Aziz Zurub, the municipality’s HSE director. “The municipality will therefore rigorously monitor all building and construction sites, as well as maintenance and cleaning works, to ensure that companies comply with all HSE requirements,” Zurub said. According to statistics revealed by the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, 53 lives were lost in 2011 due to falls from heights and falling objects. In addition, 59 per cent of all injuries from falls and falling objects occurred in the construction sector.

The licence to undertake the cleaning of building facades can be obtained via the municipality’s e-licensing programme. A list of approved technical inspection companies must also inspect the equipment used by cleaning companies every six months. These inspection companies have themselves been approved by the municipal HSE department, as well as the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA). Companies engaged in maintenance or construction that do not implement the appropriate security precautions to safeguard passers-by or adjacent buildings will be considered as violating the municipal HSE standards.

Other violations include undertaking maintenance or construction work without the appropriate permit, or working beyond the prescribed working hours, the municipality statement said. If a violation is detected, operations could be suspended until the applicable fines are paid and the errors corrected. Zurub urged cleaning companies to ensure that scaffolding equipment, cranes and platforms are made of safe and high-quality materials. “Platforms should be panelled with wood so that they can withstand loads. In addition, protection barriers and systems to prevent debris from falling should also be provided,” he said.

The official also said that scaffolding equipment must be anchored with a rigid support system and base plate on a solid ground surface. Workers must also use securely connected safety belts, and protective personal equipment such as face masks. In addition, all equipment must be re-checked after bad weather conditions, or when cleaning platforms and cranes are dismantled or changed.

Mihal Labonov, technical director at equipment manufacturing and maintenance company Tass Industries, said many cleaning companies tend to use cheaper equipment that is often not safe. “In many other countries, load tests to check the condition of equipment used in construction and cleaning works are required each year. The Municipality of Abu Dhabi City has, however, implemented even stricter standards, requiring these tests to be conducted every six months,” Labonov said. “While the stricter inspection standards will enhance safety for workers, companies must also always ensure that workers are well trained and provided with proper safety equipment,” he added.