The Window Cleaning Artists

Keeping their day jobs: Local artist-run businesses hire fellow creative types to help them fund their passion. Clockwise from bottom left are Kris Schindel, Adam Cope, Darren Paul, Elliott James and Patrick Howarth, a crew of window washers who all happen to be actors or musicians.

Working as an artist isn't easy - whether that art is making music, acting or painting. You're in a high-risk industry, working from contract to contract, and in between contracts you're hustling for more work. No job security, no benefits - all for a meagre financial reward. Statistics Canada says Canadian artists earn just $23,000 a year on average, not much above the poverty line. Hence, the day job. Many artists find clever ways to make a living, discovering that the skills they learned doing their BFAs end up surprisingly useful in doing other work, or even being a business owner. The stereotype of the actor who moonlights as a waiter exists for a reason: It's great work that fits into the lifestyle. But some actors find unexpected alternatives to food service. Heights Residential Services is a window-washing company that predominately hires actors and musicians. No surprise, as the owners of the business have strong ties to the Edmonton arts community. Kris Schindel is a singer/songwriter who has performed in various bands throughout the years, and Clinton Carew is an actor/director/filmmaker, who is finishing up an MFA in directing at the University of Alberta. It seems a bit odd, but window-washing has similarities to performing. For Schindel and Carew, it's about hiring crews who work well together.
Elliott James, an acting student at the U of A, was recruited by Carew and has been working for two seasons, along with several of his schoolmates. The invitation to wash windows, clean eaves- troughs and put up Christmas lights was a welcome change from his former day job. "It's better than serving (tables). You don't have to be a slave to people over food. Serving is a little more heartbreaking; this is a little more freeing." Actor/fight choreographer Patrick Howarth agrees. "It's more social. More task-oriented, but you are there in one place, you're not rushing about trying to multi-task. You have a chance to socialize with the people you're working with, and also there's a lot of talking that happens between the people who hired you. They want to get to know you." In fact, his two worlds sometimes intersect.
"I've even had the experience of someone describing something they had just seen two days before, Strawberries in January, which they really liked," says Howarth. "After I ascertained that they liked the play, I told them it was me." Schindel prefers to work with actors and musicians because the skills they've learned as artists are useful on top of a ladder. "They know how to improvise, they're personable, they know how to put on a good face and they work hard," he says, comparing the work ethic to the dedication it takes to put on a show. And skills learned wielding a squeegee can help a fledgling actor, says James.
"Yeah, balance on the ladder, and learning to do things you're scared of. You learn to be calm under pressure, and if you're on a high ladder or onstage, it's a skill you can use." He also notes that it's a great chance to have the ear of a more experienced actor, like Howarth, Jesse Gervais and George Szilagyi, who have also worked for Heights. And though window cleaning is a world away from the glamour of the stage, Howarth doesn't mind: it's all about control and lack of stress. It's humbling to take a day job, but there are worse things to do.
"There's a stigma. It's really hard for an artist to take another job, any job. It feels like a betrayal, even for practical reasons to fund your art. When Clinton first said, 'Do you want to wash windows?' I said, 'Wash windows? That sounds just terrible.' But then you go do it, and it's the best job in the world. It's just you and the window. You're out in the sunshine, enjoying the weather and whether you succeed or fails depends on how you clean the window." Still, the more traditional "day job" for many artists is working in the food and beverage industry.
Penny Jo Buckner, a visual artist and musician, has been running Cafe Mosaics for the last 12 years with her sisters and mother. She understands why her restaurant has as many artists taking orders as giving them: "It's not a normal work environment. The art on the walls is a big part of it, and bands come here to eat. It's for like-minded individuals." In this case, it was a matter of creating a space that was artist-friendly because they too were artists (one of the conditions of buying the business with her family was that Buckner be allowed to go on tour), and they ended up hiring friends. "It's the kind of job where you can quit for six months and come back," says Buckner. "And when we opened, I had to tour with a friend's band -- it was already built in." Currently on staff are actor Amy Shostak, visual artists Justin and Matt Zawada, Natalie Danchuk and Audrey Bray, jeweler Katie Janvier, potter Agnes White, and of course, Buckner and sister Jody Shenkarek, who is also a musician. Clockwise from front-centre are Cafe Mosaics staffers Penny Jo Buckner, a visual artist and musician; actor Amy Shostak; visual artists Matthew Zawada and Justin Zawada; jeweler Katie Janvier and potter Agnes White.

W is for Window Washing

It takes a rare breed to hang out 70 storeys in the sky for a living, besides a head for heights, you had better like peregrines. When you step onto the roof of Scotia Plaza, the first thing that hits you are the bugs. Pictured above: Trevor Pitts, who has wielded a squeegee for three years, wipes a window high up the 70-storey Scotia Plaza building, which can take 10 weeks to clean.
You're 70 storeys up. It's an entirely different ecosystem. For one thing, it's 7C cooler than it is at ground level. And this time of year, the place is swarming with aphids. Stand still for long, and you are gradually mummified in a thin layer of critters. Still, it could be worse. "Two weeks from now, it'll be the spiders. Lots of them. Big suckers," says Neal Dance, rounding his forefinger and thumb to indicate something about the size of a toonie. Dance is talking while two of his employees stand nearby fiddling with their safety harnesses. They are getting ready to step off the edge onto a narrow platform suspended 285 metres above the ground and clean the windows. The number of tall residential buildings in the GTA has increased almost 70 per cent in the past eight years, with roughly 1,300 apartment buildings four storeys or higher. Add in the office towers and unclassifiable structures like the AGO and that's a lot of windows that need professional cleaning. The men and women who do the job aren't suicidal. They just look like that, tied to ropes all the way up above.
Dance, 48, a former washer himself, emblemizes this breed apart. He's a wandering soul whose greying dreadlocks hang down well below his waist. After a decade as a British paratrooper, he travelled the world. At 30, he ended up in Toronto. A random billboard ad got him thinking about window washing. Dance started out on this very building, washing its windows at night. Eighteen years on, he is the president of Solar Group Inc., and Scotia Plaza (pictured left) gets cleaned by day.
Window-cleaning season stretches from May to November. Right now, Solar is ramping up. The company employs 60 washers to do 400 buildings in the city, including First Canadian Place and the CN Tower (pictured below-right). It isn't hard to find people. People generally find them – bike couriers, construction workers, even a group of parachutists at one point. "There's a certain sort of thrill-seeker this job attracts," says Dance.
It takes two earthbound weeks to learn how to clean windows properly. There are three days of safety training. Then you're out on a platform or dangling from a bosun's chair – highrise cleaners tend to specialize in one or the other. Some find that once they have to step out over the abyss, they can't do it. That happens to about one time in 10. Those few are reassigned to ground work. The cleaners on the Scotia Plaza work on a platform 15 metres long that's hinged in the middle at a right angle to fit the crenulated design of the building. The platform is suspended from a large motor that resembles a locomotive. The motor chugs around the roof via a rail system, putting the platform in place to be lowered. The tower was built with window cleaning in mind, like all the downtown behemoths. There are vertical channels in the walls in which the cleaners can `plug' the platform, thereby defying the updraft. Platform cleaners toil in pairs, working until the wind forces them off the building or they feel like quitting. They're paid for piecework – so many dollars for so much of the building cleaned. Generally, they aim to cover about 80 vertical feet of frontage in a day. For that, they'll earn about $200 each, according to Dance.
Cleaning this tower is a year-round operation. It takes six to 10 weeks to do the whole thing. On the first pass, washers clean the windows. On the second, they clean the reddish granite cladding. Today, the team doing the windows is Phillip Watkinson, 29, and Trevor Pitts, 34. They've been at this job for three years. Though it may strike you as a risky way to earn your bread, this job is all about eliminating risk. "If you get caught doing any daredevilry, that's the last daredevilry you'll do," says Pitts. "Yup, you're fired before you hit the ground," adds Watkinson. The greatest danger is the wind. There are four distinct layers of wind – "like currents in the ocean" – as you move down the tower. And the winds can shift. Before they lower the platform, cleaners let a few drops of water fall. The turbulence of the water's descent tells them what they're dealing with.
Both Watkinson and Pitts cite tranquillity as their favourite part of the job. The only noise is the wind picking up now and again and the odd siren below. "Oh, and then there are the peregrines," says Pitts, referring to a group of falcons."I came up the other morning, and one was just sitting over there," says Watkinson. "He was eating a duck." The peregrines look pretty, but they're ornery. And unlike spiders, they're dangerous. They don't weigh much – about a kilo – but anything that can swoop in at speeds up to 320 km/h is going to do some damage. A few years ago, one took a chunk out of a window washer's scalp as he worked. "He thought his partner had slapped him in the back of the head," says Solar's operations manager, Don Hillier. "He needed stitches." So. How do you avoid an irritated peregrine? "The key is to stay close to the building," says Hillier. "The key is to dump the water out of your bucket and put it on your head," offers Pitts. A few minutes later, Watkinson and Pitts are poised on the side of the building, silently going about their business. Each has a foot-long brush with soft bristles lashed to one hand and a squeegee to the other. From the ground, window cleaning looks like a slow process. Up close, it looks impossibly fast, a swirling attack honed by thousands of repetitions. While they work, Dance continues to wax about the job up high. Mid-sentence, a breeze kicks up, blowing north into town. "It's three o'clock, isn't it," Dance asks. It is, almost to the second. "That's the city breathing. In the morning, it breathes out (toward the lake) and in the afternoon it breathes back in," Dance says. Just another thing you can't learn at ground level.

Water Fed Pole Demo Live from Window Cleaning Resource USA

Coming to you live from the USA, the water fed pole convention above. Showing demonstrations of Xtel poles Gardiner poles & products from Reach Higher Ground. "Massive Sale on the following brands today only. We will beat any advertised price. Order online or call 862 266 0677 - Order must be placed today to save!" If you are a member of the forum at Window Cleaning resource, just click on the logo to the left to take you straight there. If you are not a member - click on the top picture to take you to the FlixWagon live feed. There may be live feed below - but blogger may be slower than actual live feed! If transmission stops, just refesh page.

Friday Window Cleaning Update

Window cleaner tricksters make off with watches worth thousands: A gang of bogus window cleaners who trick their way into people's homes before stealing jewellery worth thousands of pounds may have struck again. In April, two men disguised as window cleaners duped a nanny into letting them into a home in Poets Road, Highbury, where they stole £2,000 of diamonds. Now it has emerged a near identical crime happened just days later in nearby St Paul Street, Islington, where raiders made off with valuables worth even more. At about 1pm on April 28, three men knocked on the door of a residential address in St Paul Street, offering their services as window cleaners. The victim, a 35-year-old woman, invited them in. After a while they claimed they needed access to the top floor from inside the house, as their ladder was not long enough.
After cleaning a few of the windows from the inside, one of the men asked the victim for a glass of water. When she returned with the water, he drank it and said he was going outside. The other two men followed him shortly after, claiming they would be back to finish the work later on in the day. The owner then discovered that a vintage 1944 Omega watch worth £2,200 and a Rolex watch worth £1,000 had vanished. She had paid the thieves £30 for their "work".
Trainee Detective Constable Conrad Trotman, of Islington police, warned residents to be on guard. He said: "Members of the public should always ensure that tradesmen and people from utility companies who knock on their doors show appropriate identification. Genuine tradesmen should carry an identification card with their photograph on."
The officer continued: "If you are unsure, telephone the company the caller claims to represent. If you are not convinced of the identity of the caller, don't let them in." The first suspect was white, six feet tall and slim with dark brown hair. He wore glasses, work trousers splattered in blue paint and a blue sweater. The second was white, 5ft 4ins tall, of medium build with a round face and short dark brown hair. He wore a blue sweater, blue tracksuit bottoms and white trainers. The third crook was a dark-skinned white man with green eyes and short dark hair. He wore either a pink or yellow shirt and light trousers. Anyone with information should call police on 020 7421 0371.

Vermont Soapworks has been raising the bar on natural and organic soap quality and innovation since 1992, and their latest breakthrough is the first certified organic shampoo base for the Private Label Industry. Larry Plesent started Vermont Soapworks in 1992 after experiencing severe skin problems from the cleaning chemicals used by his window washing company. He began researching healthy alternatives for himself and the many people like him that are sensitive to detergents and other synthetic ingredients. Vermont Soapworks has grown from a two person operation in 1992 to the largest manufacturer of handmade organic bar soap in North America, selling products in more than 2,500 stores nationwide. “We think of ourselves as molecule herders, rather than molecule torturers,” says Plesent. “Our job is to help the molecules follow their nature and that is what makes us a different kind of company.” Vermont Soapworks also operates a Discount Factory Outlet Store that features an Antique Soap Museum, factory tours and demonstrations.
.

Trump's towering toothpick; In the New York tabloids, this would be the headline: "The Donald's top flops!" And they wouldn't be targeting Donald Trump's comb-over. The subject instead is the just-completed spire atop the 92-story Trump International Hotel & Tower, the tallest American skyscraper since the 1974 completion of Sears Tower. You and I are going to be looking at this prominent pinprick for a very long time. Unfortunately, it's a one-star piece of skyline stagecraft, a Kmart accessory for an Hermes suit. The spire is too skinny, too short, and looks vaguely plastic, like something you'd buy in the toy aisle. And we have two very famous, very powerful people to blame for it: Mayor Richard Daley, who told Trump to build the spire, and Trump himself, who didn't carry out his assignment with the necessary gusto. The tower's chief designer, Adrian Smith, and his former firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, also must share responsibility. True, it is too early for a wholesale evaluation of this hotel and condominium skyscraper, whose walls of glass and stainless steel can be dazzlingly luminous and whose still-under-construction riverfront plaza promises to be a vibrant public space. Scaffolding still must be removed from the tower's south face. But the much-anticipated spire, all 227 feet and 8 inches of it, is done and therefore fair game. The exterior is wrapped in walls of glass and fins of stainless steel that, at their best, beautifully catch and reflect sunlight. The glass can turn from blue to white in the late afternoon sun and stop you in your tracks as you watch the reflection of a puffy white cloud amble slowly across it. The final fault comes in an elongated drumlike extension of the tower, covered in glass, that serves as a penthouse for window-washing equipment. It sits atop the skyscraper like a hat, failing to interlock with either the tower beneath it or the spire above it.

Another US home service provider, Your trusted home service providers...You've read and seen the stories in the news regarding the pitfalls of hiring the wrong contractor. It can be devastating! ToFixIt! takes the guesswork out of finding good companies. From your roof to the foundation, and everything in between, we've got you covered, including landscaping, pools, cleaning services, etc... Your home is probably the biggest investment you may ever make. You deserve the best!

When I'm Cleaning Windows: In the wake of the accident at the Microsoft campus where a window cleaner George Payne was rushed to hospital in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft have acquired the copyright of an up-to-date version of George Formby's song "When I'm Cleaning Windows" which Mr Payne had adapted for himself. Mr. Payne likes George Formby's songs and reworded many of them for himself, but an official at Microsoft heard someone reciting the song with Mr. Payne's words and decided that with the use of Microsoft's brands in his song it would be better if Microsoft owned the copyright and made Mr. Payne a substantial offer - but would not disclose how much. Microsoft were so overwhelmed with Mr. Payne's version they did what they could do obtain copyright and used the use of the company's brand as an excuse to support their side. The reworded song still had the Formby touch but is quite appropriate with today's technology. Mr. Payne agreed and can now retire from being a window cleaner and spend more time rewording lyrics from other comedians he likes.
Now I go cleaning Windows To earn an honest bob For a computer whiz kid It's an interestin' job Now it's a job that just suits me A Windows cleaner you would be If you saw what's on a PC When I'm cleaning Windows
Windows XP, Vista too You'll have seen them nothing new You'd be surprised what PCs do When I'm cleaning Windows
Chorus: In my profession I'll work hard But I'll never stop Protecting users from fraudsters Who try to stay on top
The user dating on the Net Looking for it you can bet I'd rather have that than a pet When I'm cleaning Windows
The web designer has a thought A new domain he has just bought Sticks his USB in the port When I'm cleaning Windows
I know a fella, such a fool He wastes his time, that's his rule While he's about he looks so cool When I'm cleaning Windows
DVDs lyin' side by side Sexy ladies I have spied I've often seen what goes inside When I'm cleaning Windows
------ banjo ------
A female screensaver's been seen She looks a flapper on the screen It's more like flashing but it's clean When I'm cleaning Windows
She pulls the clothes off down behind Then pulls off her... never mind It's amazing what rubbish I'll find When I'm cleaning Windows
Chorus: An old maid's profile goes online She's so fed up, but that is fine She's happy once she has seen mine When I'm cleaning Windows
When I'm cleaning Windows

Students Send Window-Washing Wakeup Call to Ohio Utility: Yesterday morning, the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition held a protest outside of the American Municipal Power headquarters in Columbus. The plan was to wash AMP’s windows to help them “See the Light” while holding murals depicting Ohio’s future with AMP’s proposed coal-fired power plant versus Ohio’s future with renewable energy. However, when the group arrived there were two police cars and a paddy wagon parked outside the headquarters. Outside, the rest of the group held up the murals and banners and chanted to keep spirits up. After the meeting, the students continued chanting as they marched away, knowing this was merely the first action in a series.

Problems When Dealing With Window Cleaning Companies: When you windows need to be cleaned, most of the times homeowners just pick up the phonebook when trying to find a company. And unfortunately, most people just choose whoever they see first.Well I would like to give you some great advice on how to pick a window cleaning company. This is going to be advice coming from my years of experience as a San Diego Window cleaning company. Now you may be thinking, what’s the big deal when hiring a window washing company. Well for starters, there are a lot of companies out there who will just hire anybody to clean windows for them. They do this without a background check.Well you do realize, these people are going to have access going in and out of your house.With that being the situation, don’t you want to make sure it is a reputable company you are dealing with. It could mean the difference between not just a good cleaning job, but it could also mean the difference in items being lost or stolen from your home.
So what must you do to screen for a good company? Well to start, you check to see if the employees are professional, clean, and uniformed. If they are not, this could be a sign of a company that goes through new employees every week without much screening. Second, you want to make sure the company is bonded and insured. Accidents can happen, and if they do, you want to be protected as much as possible. Third, are they using professional equipment.This does help you in seeing if the company is professional in their work and if it is quality work. Fourth, you are going to want to check to see how long their business has been around.Like most things, longevity says a lot and shows you that you are dealing with a very reputable company.
Finally, you will want to have them provide you past references of past clients. Nothing is better validation on how good their work is than a company’s previous customers.This is going to allow you to know how well they have done in their past performances. There you go. Some quick tips you can use to find the best window cleaning company around.

Pontypool man's jobless 'silver lining': AN unemployed man from Pontypool has set up his own gardening and window cleaning business thanks to support from Jobcentre Plus project Want2Work. Kevin Williams, 46, set up Cut-n-Clean in December 2008 after his phone company employer was forced to lay off staff because of the recession. Instead of looking at the move negatively, Mr WIlliams found a silver lining. He said: "Once you've been stuck in a factory environment for more than 28 years, the need to get out there and do something different was actually a blessing in disguise." Mr Williams had always wanted to run his own business and helped family and friends with their gardens as a hobby. After becoming unemployed he was referred to the Want2Work project which helped him take his ideas forward. Cut-n-Clean opened for business just before Christmas and proved an instant success with Mr Williams gardening and cleaning windows. He is hoping to be in a position to employ other people in 18 months.

Almost 100 exhibitors filled the Castine Center Wednesday at the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce’s 17th annual EXPO. The EXPO had about 950 visitors throughout the day. Many of the exhibitors said they are optimistic about the future, and although business was slow in February, business started increasing in March. Another business experiencing growth and success includes A-1 Window Washers, the largest window cleaning service in the parish. Charlie Laurie, the business’ owner, said they are picking up new customers and are very busy. Many booths held drawings for free products or services as well as providing everything from water to wine and popcorn to quesadillas. Other marketing tools, such as koozies and magnets, were distributed along with business cards to booth visitors.
.

Massachusetts firefighters get special training in rope rescue skills to be able to protect the public. Earlier this week the Southern Massachusetts Technical Rescue Team rappelled off a 40-foot tower, suspended by multi-colored ropes. "They use these same skills for confined space acts and tunnel rescues, where rope is an essential part of getting a person and the victims, out safely," said George Drees of the Baltimore Fire Department. Firefighters from Framingham, Ashland, Hopkinton, Milford and Southborough came to sharpen their rope rescue skills, preparing for the worst, such as rescuing a window washer in peril. "They'll get 'em on to your line and then cut them away from their line so they can be lowered down safely," said one firefighter. The skills are also tested during cliff and cave rescues and the groups must work as a team. "We are like an insurance policy. No one ever really knows what their insurance policy covers, but when they need it, they want full coverage out of these guys," said another firefighter.
.

Dieter Brummer (pictured)has fallen back on his day job as a high-rise window cleaner after a brief stint back in the limelight on Underbelly II. Brummer told ninemsn his appearance as a corrupt cop on the popular crime drama series had so far failed to rekindle his acting career. "It would be great to get stuck straight back into something but … there's not a hell of a lot going on," he said. Brummer, 33, rocketed to fame in the early 1990s as teen heartthrob Shane Parish in Home and Away, even winning two Logie awards for most popular actor. But since leaving Summer Bay, Brummer virtually disappeared from the small screen, instead setting up a career for himself as an "industrial rope access technician". Brummer said there were certain advantages to spending the day hanging off Sydney's skyrise offices. "It kind of puts you in a position where you don't necessarily have to deal with too many questions, like, 'Didn't you used to be in Home and Away?'" he said. But Brummer, who has since hooked up with an old agent from his soapie days, said he was still hopeful for a second chance at stardom. "You've gotta do what you've got to do to pay the bills at the end of the day. "And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but you always hold hope that the next big thing is just around the corner."

Water Fed Pole Instructional Videos for New Starters

WFPs on WCR, Series 2, epidodes 1 & 2 hosted by Micah Kommers of "We Wash Windows" from Greenville, South Carolina. This week Micah shows us a host of Poles & brushes specifically for water fed pole-ing.

Steve Stevens from Clarksville, Tennessee of "Sonlight window cleaning" gives us a blow by blow account of his induction into water fed pole cleaning. Some good memories & some, not so good! The first video shows the tankless RO/DI van mount with the equipment he bought from Window Cleaning Resource. All this leads up to his first residential clean.

Spiders, Scissors and Booms

Conversely, those with speciality plant could be actively seeking cross-hire as a route to market. It meaWith the UK construction downturn likely to run well into 2010, rental companies still face long, difficult months with plant and equipment idling in the yard. Predictions for the aerial work platform (AWP) market, however, offer some encouragement. While platform sales may be declining during the recession, rental uptake will hold firm and possibly increase. With the outlook still gloomy and investment on hold, companies are opting to rent rather than buy.
There’s other encouragement for UK hirers, too. According to figures just published in IPAF’s European Powered Access Rental Report 2008, the average fleet age in Europe for AWPs in 2008 was a relatively young 3.8 years. Of course, newer, state-of-the-art platforms make a more attractive rental proposition.
The crunch question for rental companies is, new or not so new, do you have the type of platforms that will sustain you through the downturn? Possibly not. During the construction boom, hirers have focused a substantial part of their investment on high volume, lower margin platforms - the booms and scissors which are the staple of the construction site. The lower volume, higher margin specialist platforms have been overlooked to a greater extent. But with use for the bread and butter platforms down, the more specialised machines – insulated booms, the new-generation narrow scissors, spiderlifts – are still doing well. And niche platforms are in demand in many more areas than their tag suggests. Construction itself is demanding more sophistication, hungry for platforms that give an edge in productivity, accessibility or versatility, particularly for fit-out when interiors need equipment with a more delicate touch. It could be a narrow chassis, low floor loadings, greater levelling ability or bigger outreach to machine weight ratio - features which get you to places other platforms can’t reach.
These capabilities are in demand in closely allied sectors that remain buoyant – building maintenance and refurbishment – and under-exploited markets for powered access, such as industry, infrastructure and utilities. There are also markets showing distinct growth, like facilities maintenance (FM). A legacy of the latest retail and commercial property boom, with its emphasis on statement architecture, is the access conundrums created by exposed structural steel, decorative glazing, high atriums, suspended walkways, galleried floors and so on.
Window cleaners, painters and decorators, electricians, H&V engineers, security installers, audio visual specialists, sign-writers, and many others serving the FM market are reliant on specialist platforms to overcome access issues. In addition, major developers and construction players are picking up FM contracts as part of the new era of PFI awards in health and education. With the work at height regulations filtering into working practices across all sectors, including the smaller trades, use of powered platforms for FM will only increase.
The current high cost of finance may make it difficult for hirers to diversify their plant offering to tap into these outlying sectors of business. But while they may not be able to revamp their fleet with the latest innovation, they do have the infrastructure and know-how to shift focus and pick up business in new sectors. They should be casting their net into new areas of business and exploring ways of matching solutions to customer needs, even if they don’t come from their own yard but are cross-hired from someone else’s. Rental companies could be developing new and more profitable revenue streams from cross-hired equipment, rather than cutting margins in chasing scant construction rental for their traditional fleet.
Conversely, those with speciality plant could be actively seeking cross-hire as a route to market. It means they haven’t had to do the legwork to get the business, and exposes machines to new customers to help increase awareness and drive demand universally. At IPAF’s recent summit in Dublin, speakers were urging rental companies to wake up to the emerging earning power of the specialist platform. Consolidation in the European AWP rental industry has seen the small-medium, more specialised rental companies swallowed up by the volume rental giants – squeezing the specialism out of AWP rental supply to some extent. So cross-hire may currently be the best way of tapping into the earning power of specialist machines as the recession continues to bite.
Andy Bray is managing director of The Spiderlift Company.

This building is being maintained by 1 crane type BMU which has a max outreach of 11 m. The machine runs on a set of anchored tracks. The system was designed and built by OTTE Aufzugsstechnik GmbH, Germany. It was installed and is routinely maintained by MACE BMU.
The building is located in city Al-Khobar on east coast of Saudi Arabia.

30 St Mary Axe, also known as the Gherkin and the Swiss Re Building, is a skyscraper in London's main financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened on 28 April 2004. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, with 40 floors. Its construction symbolised the start of a new high-rise construction boom in London. The primary occupant of the building is Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, who had the building commissioned as the head office for their UK operation. Maintained by MACE. More videos can be found at the MACE You-Tube channel.

Killing Swine Flu - H1NI & the Window Cleaner

With news from the sensationist UK newspaper today stating that "swine flu will rip through the globe and infect a third of the world’s population in the next six months," it also reports it will get worse this winter.

Prof Ferguson, of the WHO’s emergency committee, added: “Seasonal flu every year affects around ten per cent of the world’s population, so we are heading for a flu season which is perhaps three times worse than usual. “We can say it is not going to be as catastrophic as the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 that killed 50million. “But it is still possible it could be like 1957 - where 3 to 4million people died that year because of the pandemic worldwide. “I am not predicting 3 to 4million deaths. That was what happened in 1957. The world is a very different place today. “We have drugs and vaccines, which should reduce the burdens of the disease. “At the moment, the virus is not spreading fast in the northern hemisphere, because we are outside the normal flu season, but come the autumn it is likely to cause a really major epidemic. It was also reported in the less sensational UK newspaper here nearly word for word.

With increased warnings of keeping your hands clean, wearing masks & avoiding crowded areas - what effect will this have on the average window cleaner? Well for one, we have contact with a wide range of people & for another we are cleaning, perhaps cleaning areas that are considered "infected" by clients or the general public. The good news is that in this Q&A article in USA Today labelled "Do you know your swine flu?" - Soap and alcohol-based cleansers kill viruses, and flu is a virus. But antibacterial substances kill bacteria, not viruses. Below is the new UK advertising campaign urging people to catch the sneeze before binning the tissue.

For those that old enough to remember, the disease was swine flu, whose appearance in 1976 was believed to be a reincarnation of the infection that killed tens of millions of people in 1918 and 1919. the swine flu campaign is the one recent example of a large, government-sponsored emergency immunization program, and as such may offer lessons for today.
Events began with the death, on Feb. 4, 1976, of an Army recruit at Fort Dix, N.J., during an outbreak of respiratory infections following the holidays. Throat washings were taken from 19 ill soldiers, and a majority tested positive for that winter's dominant strain of the influenza virus, which was called A/Victoria. But four samples were different, and New Jersey public health officials sent them to the CDC to be identified.
On Feb. 12, the CDC delivered a chilling report. The four samples – which included one from the dead soldier – were swine flu. As the name suggests, swine flu was endemic to pigs. However, the devastating pandemic of the Spanish flu in 1918 and 1919 is believed to have been caused by a strain of swine flu that, through mutation, gained the ability to infect people.

Three elderly people in Pittsburgh died on the same day within hours of getting swine flu shots. It was a chance event, but just the sort of guilt by association that arises whenever a public health intervention is done on a mass scale.
What killed the program, though, was the observation in early December that people given the swine flu vaccine had an increased risk of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare, usually reversible but occasionally fatal form of paralysis. Research showed that while the actual risk for Guillain-Barre was only about 1 in 1,000 among people who had received the vaccine, that was about seven times higher than for people who didn't get the shot.
On Dec. 16, the swine flu vaccine campaign was halted. About 45 million people had been immunized. The federal government eventually paid out $90 million in damages to people who developed Guillain-Barre. The total bill for the program was more than $400 million. Below is the video for the swine flu propaganda in 1976.

N95 Masks Are Useless at Protecting Wearers from Swine Flu: When it comes to infectious disease, preparedness is good. But ill-informed preparedness is a waste of time and resources, and there's a lot of ill-informed preparedness going on right now with the swine flu.
Case in point: All those people buying N95 masks (respirators).
They think wearing a mask protects them from swine flu. The mainstream media perpetuates the myth, broadcasting images of people wearing the masks, all while talking about people "protecting themselves" from swine flu. If it wasn't a potentially life-and-death situation, it would all be quite hilarious.
But let me ask you a question: Have you ever had surgery or visited a surgery room? Did you ever notice that the surgeons and medical staff are all wearing surgical masks that are very similar to the N95 face masks being used by people afraid of swine flu?
Did you ever wonder WHY they are wearing those masks? Here's the question: Are they wearing those masks to protect themselves from the patient's germs? Of course not! They're wearing those masks to prevent their own germs from infecting the patient!
N95 masks, you see, have but one purpose: To prevent the wearer from infecting others. To use blunt medical terminology, they work by preventing snot, spit or other virus-carrying particles from becoming airborne. Thus, if the wearer sneezes, coughs, drools, spits or talks excitedly, his or her infected fluids will be trapped in the mask and will not infect others.
N95 masks have virtually no ability to protect the wearer from other people's airborne germs. This should be obvious by simply noticing that N95 masks are not air-tight! When you inhale while wearing such a face mask, the air you're inhaling enters through the gaps on the sides of the mask, completely bypassing the mask filtration system.

You may also want to check out this story from 27th February this year before the virus had even been news-worthy: The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. “At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark. “But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.”
The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany. The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses. Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

This strain of influenza contains viral code fragments from:
• Human influenza• Bird Flu from North America• Swine flu from Europe• Swine flu from Asia
This is rather astonishing to realize, because for this to have been a natural combination of viral fragments, it means an infected bird from North America would have had to infect pigs in Europe, then be re-infected by those some pigs with an unlikely cross-species mutation that allowed the bird to carry it again, then that bird would have had to fly to Asia and infected pigs there, and those Asian pigs then mutated the virus once again (while preserving the European swine and bird flu elements) to become human transmittable, and then a human would have had to catch that virus from the Asian pigs in Mexico! - and spread it to others.

Smell a rat yet? Whatever you do - don't get "vaccinated!" Reports have emerged that health care workers in Mexico City who were vaccinated, died within days.