Winterize

It's official....winter is here! You spent a lot of money on your pure water window cleaning system this year. Watch the video below for some tips on getting it winterized and tuned up for next season!

New Unger nLite Video Series

Watch our brand new video series on the Unger nLite Water Fed Poles!  This video series covers a comprehensive overview, unboxing and set up, and a closer look at the Unger nLite water fed poles. We also cover Unger water fed brushes, indoor cleaning and more! Check out all the videos at the link below!

Gutter Season

With gutter season upon us WCR has rolled out some new videos that go in-depth with one of the  popular selling gutter vacuum and pole sets available on the market.

We hope you enjoy them and learn a thing or two. Check out the videos below:

Boars Hair vs Nylon

What is the difference between Boars Hair and Nylon Water Fed Pole Brushes? What’s best for you? It depends on what your cleaning and at what height. This shot video breaks down both types.

Check out more videos here:
Tucker Water Fed Brushes, Poles, and Systems
Window Cleaning Basics
Understanding Pure Water & WaterFed Pole Window Cleaning

Basic Fanning Technique

Check out this basic fanning technique video on how to clean windows. More detailed and advanced window cleaning techniques later on in this instructional"how to clean windows" series. It's nicely broken down and easy to understand for those that are new to the industry. Click here to watch the video.

Northern Lite Water Fed Pole

Alex takes a look at the new Northern Lite Water Fed Pole from our friends up North! The Northern Lite water fed pole is a great 2-3 story water fed pole for residential or commercial window cleaning. With a short collapsed length of only 63", a true length of 29' and a reach of 32'.  Weighing only 5.6lbs without the brush this is a very user friendly water fed pole. Comes complete with brush, tubing, angle adapter and fittings. More details in the video below!

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!

Hands on with the Moerman Excelerator

Thanks to Luke the Window Cleaner for posting this video on the much anticipated Moerman Excelerator! Click below to check it out! They are using a prototype but the finished product should be ready late August or early September (hopefully!).

Electric Hose Fathers Day Wind Up

The PowerUp hose & reel from Waterworks impresses Brads Dad.

HOSE LAUGHING NOW? Dad is delighted with his generous Father’s Day present from his son – but there’s a catch. Serial prankster Brad Holmes is at it again - and this time it's his window cleaner dad who's on the receiving end. Brad Holmes is at it again – and this time, it’s his dad who’s copped the short straw.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Brad, 24, presents his father with a generous gift for Father’s Day. He explains to his unsuspecting pa that the “first electric hose-reel wind up thing” from Waterworks Window Cleaning is meant to help him with his work. Brad says: “As it’s Father’s Day I thought I’d treat you, make your life a bit easier.”

Chuffed to bits with his new toy, Brad’s dad exclaims: “B****y hell, that’s cool as you like isn’t it? Thanks mate.” After he’s had a play, the pair then climb into the front of the van, where Brad’s dad thanks his son again for his kind gift. He gushes: “It’s f*****g handy that, going to make my job 20 times f*****g easier, you know that don’t you?

“F*****g brilliant. Didn’t have to get that though, could have just got me a card, that would have been alright.” Brad tells him it worked out at around £349 plus vat, to which his dad replies: “You soppy c*** you didn’t have to spend that much did you?” It’s then Brad drops the bomb that he didn’t. When his confused dad asks who did, Brad explains: “You paid for it.” He then informs his furious father that he used his credit card, warning him: “You shouldn’t leave it lying around.”

Incensed, Brad’s dad goes off on one of his infamous sweary rants, calling his son all the names under the sun. It’s only at the very end that Brad puts him out of his misery, telling him: “I’m joking you p****, I got it.”

Brad’s videos, which often features his dad and his girlfriend Jenny, have a huge online following.

Last month, Brad played a cruel trick on Jenny which involved rubbing chilli on her tampon during her time of the month. Despite the cruel stunt receiving over 19,000 likes and 12,000 comments, the ruthless trick sparked outrage, with many accusing Brad of over-stepping the mark.

Fun Friday - Video - Window Cleaner In Drag

Window cleaner in drag.

Kate Tempest, continues to battle preconceptions. Although she studied music at south London’s famous BRIT School (which she recalls as “pretty mind-blowing”), she comes across as much less glossy than fellow alumni Adele and Lily Allen. “The Beigeness” is both the title of a song from Everybody Down (in its video, a bored window washer discovers it’s a lot more fun to wear drag and start dancing) and of a chapter in The Bricks that Built the Houses – works Tempest conceived together. Tempest calls her work from the past few years a “constellation.”

Window cleaners reportedly see many things, but few have peered through the glass into another dimension. Yet in the world of London psych-rockers Purson anything is possible, as can be gleaned from the video for The Window Cleaner, the second single from their recent album Desire’s Magic Theatre. With eerie harmonies, the song peers at the world through distinctly acid-tinted lenses, which is no accident says Purson front woman Rosalie Cunningham.

“The songs on the Desire’s Magic Theatre album are very personal, like a diary. They tend to be about the psychedelic experience, something that’s been important to me since my teenage years, figuring out my own sense of spirituality, and The Window Cleaner is a prime example,” she explains. Differing from the dark feel of much of the album, the new single carries a distinctive uplifting vibe, which is perhaps explained by the circumstances of its conception.

Cameras & Drones

Cameras & drones, commonly used by window cleaners.

DeHart: Gutter maintenance using camera-assisted vacuum - Grant Baudais has started a new property maintenance service business, Select Property Maintenance Services. Their focus is on gutter cleaning, power washing, window washing and other services around the home or business. 

They use unique equipment in their business, including a vacuum system that allows them to clean gutters from the ground using a commercial vacuum system with minimal use of ladders with a remote wireless camera system which aids in monitoring the cleaning of the gutter to ensure all materials are removed. A surface cleaner power washes decks, patios, sidewalks, driveways and other hard surfaces cleaning ground in dirt, moss and other stains. Their website is active and changing daily as they add more information, pictures and videos.

Window cleaner, Sam Luff with his drone.

Redhill window cleaner captures stunning aerial photos of Surrey with drone: These pictures were not taken from a helicopter or a fancy Google satellite, but by a Redhill window cleaner with his feet on the ground. Sam Luff has shot these stunning aerial images thanks to a drone – a light flying robot with a built-in camera – which he has used to capture East Surrey from a different perspective.

The 31-year-old, of Rathgar Close, first picked up the hobby two years ago when his girlfriend bought him a toy drone which could fit into the palm of his hand. After mastering the controls, Sam invested in the hobby-grade Phantom, which he now uses to photograph some of Surrey's most impressive landscapes and buildings, from sprawling Royal Earlswood Park to a calm and reflective Watercolour estate. Even Redhill and Reigate at night could be mistaken for inner-city locations.

Sam, who ditched a desk job after 13 years in favour of a working life outdoors, told the Mirror: "Being my own boss means I get to plan my own days. I take my drone out with me. Whenever I get half an hour or there's something interesting, I just throw it up and see what's there." He added: "I like photography anyway and the drone is an extension of that. You have full manual controls on the camera, shutter speed and exposure value – it's not just a phone camera. "I don't think most people care if I accidentally take a photo of them. If I'm hovering near their windows, that's a different thing altogether."

Reigate at night.

The device, which resembles a space probe, is limited to travel 400ft up in the air, 500m away from the controls, and move at a top speed of 30mph. Civilian use of drones has been growing, leading to the Civil Aviation Authority, which polices UK airspace, to draw up regulations.

Sophisticated models like Sam's, which are synced with a mobile phone app, have GPS technology which stops the drone from entering no-fly zones. He said: "If I take off from Horley and try to fly towards Gatwick, once it gets within 4 or 5km the whole unit restricts itself. It knows it's at Gatwick and restricts how fast and how high and how far it is from the controller. When you get to within 2km, if I was going to be careless and stupid, it would hit a geofence and it won't fly any further."

And with a live video feed to the mobile, drone controllers know exactly where they are. There's even a button to press to bring the drone back to where it took off. Sam said it means there is "no excuse" for reckless drone users.

Sam Luff, inset, takes stunning images of Surrey with his drone.

Last month, a police investigation was launched after a British Airways pilot reported a possible drone strike on a plane landing at Heathrow. Sam said: "It upsets me more than anything. It's idiots like them that may destroy the hobby. I do everything by the book. It's upsetting that anyone would fly a drone at a commercial airline."

He added: "You should know exactly what it's doing. It tells you if you're in a restricted area. There's lot of information and maps and where exactly the no-fly zones are. There's actually quite a lot of intelligence in it."

Also see:
Cumbrian Business is in the Gutter
Drones Cleaning Windows
Umbilical Drones For Window Cleaning & Painting
Drones - Window Cleaning Add-On

The insect-like micro aerial vehicle (MAV) generates a static charge for attaching to surfaces, similar in principle to static cling from a balloon. Video here.

Flying Mini-Robots Can Cling to Your Window - A new type of micro aerial vehicle saves precious power by perching on leaves or walls instead of hovering: Birds and bees make perching look easy, but creating a tiny aerial drone that can land on—and then re-launch from—a wall, tree branch or other surface takes a lot of work. Such micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) have previously used spikes or magnetic landing gear, and expend a lot of precious power to take flight again. But researchers from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several other institutions have created a minuscule wing-flapping robot that literally turns the problem on its head—with a disklike top that can cling to most surfaces using static electricity, much like rubbing a balloon and sticking it onto a wall.

The “electroadhesive” MAV can hang from the bottom of a wood or glass surface, or even a tree leaf, by creating electrostatic attraction between the surface and the electrode in its head. The power needed to maintain the electrostatic connection is “three orders of magnitude” less than that required to keep the MAV in flight for the same amount of time, the researchers wrote in a report published Thursday in Science. “Running out of power becomes a bigger problem the smaller the vehicle is,” says Moritz Alexander Graule, one of the report’s co-authors and a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

The ability to hang from a structure rather than rest on top also provides the MAV with a less-obstructed view of the area below and protection from extreme weather conditions during long perching sessions. The headfirst electrostatic approach works by changing the charge distribution of the material to which it is clinging, Graule says. This works best with a smooth texture, so the drone can adhere better to something like a window than to a rough or porous surface. The MAV’s electroadhesive connection is not particularly strong, however, which means the drones need to weigh in at roughly 84 milligrams—less than a bee. In order to relaunch the drone cuts power to the circular copper electrodes in its disk and restarts its wings.

Other aerial mini drones under development use more mechanical approaches to perching. Stanford University’s scansorial UAV uses onboard sensors to detect a wall, for example, and then performs an inflight maneuver to land and cling using microspines on its legs, according to Mirko Kovac, an engineering professor at Imperial College London’s Department of Aeronautics. Kovac’s article in this week’s Science analyzes the latest developments in MAV flight. In terms of energy conservation other ideas under consideration include leveraging wind gusts to alleviate flight strain on batteries or even developing ways for smaller MAVs to perch on larger ones midflight so they can travel greater distances without using additional energy, Kovac says.

The big remaining challenges for the researchers involve integrating a battery and microprocessor that can make their MAV more autonomous. The current mini drone relies on a wire tether to deliver power and data from external sensors to determine its position while flying but the researchers want to build a battery-powered version with enough onboard power and intelligence to fly untethered. They have also considered the possibility of enabling the drone to stick to vertical surfaces as well. The ability to cling to a wall requires not only more adhesive power but also a way for the MAV to orient itself so that its wings do not interfere with the landing.

Such a drone might be one or two years away in the lab, and as long as a decade away from being ready for more widespread development and use, says Robert Wood, the project’s principal investor and a professor at Harvard’s Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “I see applications in search and rescue, hazardous environment exploration—basically any situation where you want to have low cost and distributed sensing [that] would be too difficult or too dangerous for a human,” Wood says. He believes more immediate benefits from this research will come from solving the technological challenges of developing devices at this scale from scratch. Wood and his colleagues now use the microfabrication techniques developed to build their MAV to likewise create articulated and sensor-laden microsurgical tools geared toward minimally invasive surgical procedures.

The American Ladder Institute

Online video ladder safety training.

Are you using ladders safely? This free ladder safety training is a tool for the proper selection, care and safe use of all ladders, including stepladders, single and extension ladders, articulated ladders, and mobile ladders. Provided by the American Ladder Institute, this training outlines safe ladder practices in all applications, such as construction/painting, building and custodial services, warehousing, power, manufacturing, chemical and petrochemical, oil and gas, and at home.

Additional Safety Resources: In addition to this website, the American Ladder Institute also has these additional resources available:

View written ladder safety information.

Click here to Order copies of the online training on DVD.

Click here to view or order ladder standards.

An Articulated Ladder is a portable ladder with one or more pairs of locking hinges.

Choosing the Right Ladder: Ladders are built from one of three basic materials; wood, fiberglass and metal (aluminum).  

The environment of your work site is the first factor in choosing the material from which your ladder is constructed. For example, if you are working near sources of electricity, a metal ladder should be rejected since aluminum is an electrical conductor. Your body can complete an electrical circuit between the electrical power source, the ladder, and then to the ground in the event of a live wire contact incident. An electrical shock while working from a ladder can trigger a fall or cause your heart to stop leading to serious injury or death. On the other hand, if there are no electrical power sources in your work area, the aluminum ladder is the lightest weight when compared to fiberglass or wood.  

There are also several kinds of ladders manufactured for a variety of uses. Again, evaluation of your work environment and knowledge of what ladders are available will allow you to choose the right ladder for the job. Each of the following considerations addresses safety issues in your work environment: 

Will the ladder be resting on an uneven surface?

Is the work area crowded with people and/or materials?

What obstructions are in the path of the climb?

Next, the proper ladder length must be selected. It is unsafe to use a ladder that is too long or too short. When using a Step Ladder,for example, standing on the top cap or the step below the top cap is not permitted due to the increased likelihood of losing your balance. Likewise, when using an Extension Ladder, the top three rungs are not to be used for climbing. A Straight Ladder is too long, for example, if ceiling height prohibits the ladder from being set-up at the proper angle. Likewise, an Extension Ladder is too long if the ladder extends more than three (3) feet beyond the upper support point. In this case, the portion of the ladder that extends above the upper support point can act like a lever and cause the base of the ladder to move or slide out. Safety standards require a label on the ladder to indicate the highest standing level.

Next, consider the Duty Rating of the ladder. This is an indication of the maximum weight capacity the ladder can safely carry. To figure out the total amount of weight your ladder will be supporting, add:

Your Weight; plus

The Weight of Your Clothing and Protective Equipment; plus

The Weight of Tools and Supplies You Are Carrying; plus

The Weight of Tools and Supplies Stored on the Ladder

There are five categories of ladder Duty Ratings:

Type IAA (Extra Heavy Duty) 375 pounds

Type IA (Extra Heavy Duty) 300 pounds

Type I (Heavy Duty) 250 pounds

Type II (Medium Duty) 225 pounds

Type III (Light Duty) 200 pounds

The Duty Rating of your ladder can be found on the specifications label. Safety standards require a Duty Rating sticker to be placed on the side of every ladder. Do not assume that a longer ladder has a higher weight capacity.   There is no relationship between ladder length and weight capacity.

 Read more

Ungers "Clean" Magazine

Swedes Ivan Pleinadius and Marianne Pettersson, 

Unger Europe: Unger brings out an online magazine for window cleaners in several languages. With news, downloads, videos, technology, tips & tricks & much more interesting stuff for the professional window cleaner. You can also find all the brochures & Unger product details directly from the European website. Featured in the magazine are speed cleaners, Swedens Ivan Pleinadius and Marianne Pettersson who are usually in attendance at most of Ungers trade shows.

These are the recently crowned world champions of “Speed Cleaning” - As fast as it gets: the Swedes Ivan Pleinadius and Marianne Pettersson prevailed at the IWCA Window Cleaning Contest in Florida, beating 25 competitors in the process. They came first and second in the “Speed Cleaning” category. They had both already shown off their skills at Unger’s trade fair show in Amsterdam and will also be at this year’s ISSA INTERCLEAN from 10th – 12th May. We met up with the Unger fans for an interview. Read the interview here.

Umbilical Drones For Window Cleaning & Painting

Apellix has developed the worlds first software controlled robotic system that utilizes drones connected to a base station with an umbilical cord and tether (UCAT) as material applicators. The Apellix platform moves workers from harms way - by replacing window washers on skyscrapers, moving painters off of scaffolding, and helping move workers to locations with reduced exposure to harmful chemicals. As a safety company we value human workers and the environment, and bring large value to both.

Robots may replace window cleaners, painters next: More than five million jobs are thought likely to be replaced by robots in the coming decade according to some analysts, and it may be that window cleaning and painting are part of that number. A new drone design from Apellix is conceptualising the idea of a robotic painting system, which negates the need to put workers at risk on tall ladders and against tall buildings.

As one of the more dangerous jobs in the U.S., with several deaths each year due to falls, construction – especially on ladders – is something Apellix wants to change. Instead of sending men up ladders, it wants to send a quad-copter up the side of a building with an “umbilical” connection. That cable can provide power, but it also provides paint, water and anything else it might need to complete its task.

The little robot can be seen in the latest demonstration video, flying up the side of a two story warehouse and spray painting it. Apellix has fitted that same robot with a hose system and a 3,000 PSI high-velocity-paint-sprayer, allowing for its application in even the most turbulent of environments.

This could easily be applied to other liquids, such as water, which would allow pressure washing of windows and walls that are out of reach of humans or at least can’t be cleaned safely. Apellix has other ideas too. Fitted with an expanding, self-setting foam gun and stockpile, it believes the umbilical equipped drones could build temporary igloo housing. It could theoretically “3D print” all sorts of structures autonomously with further development.

Friday Funny - Window Cleaners Girlfriend

Window cleaner, Brad Holmes and girlfriend Jenny Davies

Girlfriend’s general knowledge quiz fail: She’s entertained millions with her curveball answers to simple general knowledge questions. And now Jenny Davies is getting used to life as an internet superstar. The Facebook clip of the 22-year-old, from Fratton, giving her daft answers swept social media being shared internationally.

And the brains behind the video, her boyfriend 24-year-old Brad Holmes, a window cleaner from Southampton, has discovered a hidden talent for blogging and social media marketing. Jenny, a former City of Portsmouth Girls’ School pupil, said: ‘A couple of months ago Brad was asking me questions and he realised that some of my answers were appalling. ‘He made the video and it went viral. It got more than two million hits so he thought he would make another one at the end of the year, but that one has gone even more crazy.’

Brad posted the video on a Facebook page called ‘Brad’s Dad’ that he had set up to show clips of his dad ranting at work. The clip has now been watched nearly 750,000 times since it was posted on January 1, with many people saying they want to see more.

In the clip, Jenny gives her answers with conviction, such as saying she thinks the capital of South Africa is Africa, the creator of Apple is Bill Gates and Winston Churchill discovered America. And Brad says that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her zany logic. ‘She’s got an explanation for it all which is quite funny. She baffles me sometimes,’ he said.

In the past she’s told Brad she thought you could swim under 
Britain and that sat navs speak different 
languages depending what country they’re in. Brad said: ‘I’d never seen anything like it before. ‘She’s got intelligence but there’s no common sense.’

Now the pair, who met because Jenny recognised Brad from his Brad’s Dad Facebook page in a Port Solent pub five months ago, have been stopped in the street by strangers. And they’re in talks with television producers in the hope of making it on to the small screen. But the burning question – is Jenny making it up for the camera? ‘People think I’m putting it on,’ she said. ‘But it’s true. I’m that stupid, ask my friends and family. ‘Even my nan said “where have you got that from?”.’ The latest video...

Brad begins his questions by asking: 'Traditionally how many days of Christmas are there?'

Jenny's answer is: '25. Christmas Day.' 'No,' Brad replies. 'I know what you're thinking, so what about Boxing Day?' She looks confused and replies: '26 then.' 

He moves on to asking: 'Where was the battle of Trafalgar?' Jenny replies that it took place in Trafalgar Square and Brad laughs and tells her she's wrong. 'What else would it have been named after, dumbo?' she replies. 'Obviously it’s Trafalgar Square because that’s where it would have been held. Stupid.'

Next up is a geography question: 'What's the capital of South Africa?' But Jenny is wrong again, replying that Africa is the capital.  And when asked who founded the technology company Apple, she says that it's Bill Gates. 

'On a roulette table if the numbers are zero to 36 how many numbers are there?' Brad continues. Jenny replies: 'I should know this. I used to work in a casino.' But she's wrong again, saying that it's 36.  When Brad laughs, she looks annoyed. 'There's 36 numbers on the board,' she says. 'You're saying zero to 36, so it's obviously 36.'

He then poses another geography question, asking: 'Who discovered America?' 'I don't know,' she says. 'Winston Churchill? How would I know who discovered America? I don't even know who discovered England.' He tries another simple geography question, saying: 'How many countries are in the UK?' 'One,' Jenny replies. 'Don't try to catch me out Brad. One, because we're one United Kingdom. You think I'm stupid.'

So he leaves geography behind and asks: 'If you play football for West Browmich Albion which city are you in?' 'West Brom,' she replies. 'Why are you laughing? We live in Portsmouth and we've got Pompey football club. 'You're from Southampton and you've got Southampton football club. So West Bromwich Albion are going to live in West Brom.'

When asked how many millimetres there are in 100cm, Jenny looks baffled. 'How many what?' she says. 'I don't even know what a millimetre is?' 'What is the Bermuda Triangle?' Brad continues. 'A triangle,' she says. 'I don't know. A triangle in the muda - whatever it's called.'

The video got a mixed reaction from fans, with some saying it was hilarious and others criticising Brad for posting the video. 

This Cat’s Best Friend Is the Window Washer

This hilarious video was filmed by Rina Takei, the owner of the cat believed to be called Guinness, on the monthly visit from the window cleaner. In the clip the feline is filmed running along the lower part of the window while inside a high-rise building in Pimlico, London and following the window cleaner with his eyes.

This Cat’s Best Friend Is the Window Washer: YouTube user Rina Takei’s channel is filled with videos of house cat Guinness playing with the man dangling outside the fourth story window. The cat’s interest is seemingly piqued the moment the big black safety rope appears out the window with the furball trying to bat at it through the glass.

When the man that the video description calls “Window Cleaning Uncle” appears, the fun really gets started. While the window is cleaned, the cat goes to town trying to either play with the squeegee or decimate the invader, depending on what you think about cats and their motives. The cleaner, protected from the cat’s assault by a sheet of glass, is more than happy to play along. If their friendship (or ongoing war) gets any cuter they might have to take it to the next level—which is the next floor, of course.

Cat and window cleaner become BFFs after months of meeting at same window:  Guinness the cat may be a city slicker but he's got a soft spot for one human that he's made friends with since he moved into his new apartment. It all started for Guinness and the window cleaner when Guinness was just a kitten and started to interact with the abseiling window cleaner who comes to the building every week, but as the weeks and months went by, the two started developing a fun relationship and now, according to Guinness' owner Rina Takei, he waits every week for his 'Uncle' to appear at the window and say hello.

Insane Falling Glass Video

This is the horrifying moment a man dodges death as a falling WINDOW nearly slices him in half. The pane is seen falling, left, and making impact, right

INSANE CLIP: Man dodges death as falling window nearly cuts him in half: Footage shows the man walking along a city street at a relaxed pace, even stopping to check the bottom of his shoe, oblivious to what's coming. But when he reaches the al-fresco area of a local cafe, a pane of falling glass enters the shot - and it comes so close that it pulls off his headdress and sends it flying. Had he been inches nearer to the road, the impact would certainly have killed him.

Within seconds, the dazed man is scrambling to his feet, hardly taking a moment to register the glass around him as he picks up his headdress and heads back the way he came. He is then beckoned into the cafe by two other men who look upwards in horror at where the shattered pane fell from. The CCTV clip, from Saudi Arabia, was published last night on LiveLeak after being shot last month.

High Rise Window Washers of Manhattan Video

The men who provided their perspectives on it for this film, lifelong New Yorkers John McDermott and John Wren, turned out to be both completely sane and highly safety-conscious.

High-Rise-Window Washers of Manhattan: High rise window washing, once among the most dangerous jobs in the world, has become extremely safe, statistically speaking. Still, the gig remains capable of producing Youtube clips to make you weak at the knees, most memorably a harrowing mishap at the top of a hundred-and-one-story building in Shanghai, and an equally unpleasant situation in Denver. Never mind that, miraculously, nobody died in either case; the profession’s few remaining dangers are so spectacular—and the fears they cause so primal—that, to the casual observer, it is still the province of daredevils and lunatics.

For me, the opportunity to explore such a world was irresistible, even if the men who provided their perspectives on it for this film, lifelong New Yorkers John McDermott and John Wren, turned out to be both completely sane and highly safety-conscious. (Though, by their own accounts, they may not have entered the profession that way, thirty years ago.) The result—based on a 2013 piece in these pages and the product of the hard work of various producers and cameramen—also led me to an uneasy realization: When these men began window washing three decades ago, it was an accepted premise of American life that, through unions and union membership, an aspiring musician (McDermott) and a young baseball player with a career-ending injury (Wren) could take blue-collar jobs and eventually be afforded, through hard work, a middle-class quality of life. Today, with unions under renewed attack, the biggest threat to window washers comes no longer from gods but from mere mortals.

Drones - Window Cleaning Add-On

Ian Kevern, who owns Squeek Ian Clean, recently bought a drone as an add-on to his window cleaning business.

Torrington man launches drone film business: A Torrington window cleaner is planning to make extra cash filming weddings and stag dos – from the sky. Ian Kevern, who owns Squeek Ian Clean, recently bought a drone and started posting his dramatic videos of North Devon’s hills, valleys and beaches on YouTube. “My video of Castle Hill in Torrington really got everyone going,” he said. “There was a massive thick fog down in the valley. “The video was a bit shaky -I’ve got better since then – but I got so many positive comments from people.” Ian was encouraged when his video of a Torrington church “went down a treat” with viewers.

He said people had contacted him to say they were “moved to tears” by his aerial views of the local landmark. Ian was content flying his drone as a hobby until he thought, “Hang on, there’s some money to be made here”. “I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon early,” he said. “Drone businesses are already making good money in the US, filming high-end properties for estate agents.” Ian has had to complete a civil aviation course and apply for legal permission to use the drone professionally. He will be required to adhere to strict guidelines, such as not flying the drone above 400 feet.

Having parachuted and joined his 70-year-old father on his paragliding adventures, drone flying was a natural activity for Ian to take up. “I’ve spent most of my life outside, running and surfing,” he said. “I decided to get a new hobby which wouldn’t involve sweaty clothes lying around the house. I checked out some of the drone videos and thought it was something I could get into.” Ian is planning to test his drone filming skills to the limit at his son’s upcoming wedding at Tapeley Park. “It’s a brilliant thing to work with because it’s so intelligent,” he said. “If I get into trouble the drone will come back and land pretty much where I tell it to.”

You may remember Ian Kevern from his fancy dress - look here & here.

The compact drone flies by itself and follows a tracking device that is worn around the wrist like a watch.

Throw this drone into the air and it'll follow you, filming all the while: Ever worry you're being followed? With the Lily drone, you are. Throw it into the air and it flies, following you wherever you go. And it films too, so you can record yourself mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding and anything else you like. It knows where you are because you wear a tracking device on your wrist. Here's a video showing how it keeps up.

You can choose to have the drone follow, go in front or from the side, so you can make sure you get your best side. When you've had enough, it lands in the palm of your hand, like a faithful bird returning to its owner. It flies for 20 minutes on a single charge and has a range of 100 feet. It's waterproof too, so you can have it film you in the water without worrying about it breaking if it lands in the drink. It films in 1080p HD and can take 12-megapixel stills. You use the remote to snap stills, change the angle it films from and record audio. It's your new best friend.

Wagtail Videos

New Wagtail Precision Glide Squeegee - no more detailing!

Wagtail was at the WCP (Window Cleaning Page) Show in Dorset organised by Mark Munro was attended by window cleaning professionals across the globe on Saturday & has become the biggest Window Cleaning Show in the UK. Willie Erken from Australia, of Wagtail Tools was there to unveil the new "Precision Glide" squeegee. The squeegee has been in development for a while, but this particular squeegee has the ability to do away with detailing without having to "dog-ear" or alter handles & can be used as a one pass squeegee as well. Included in this blog is the official promotional video & uncut raw footage from the show.

More videos to come, but for now, here's the long raw uncut version from the show. The Precision Glide is shown around the two minute mark...