Fitzrovia Window Cleaner Champions Green

Antony Cairns cycles to work with all his window cleaning equipment attached to his bicycle.

Cycling makes environmental and economic sense for local window cleaner: Antony Cairns has been selected as a Green Streets champion for Fitzrovia. Antony is a window cleaner and travels into Fitzrovia by bicycle from his home in Somers Town. The Green Streets campaign is part of Camden Council‘s plan to encourage more walking and cycling in Fitzrovia and was officially launched yesterday (Tuesday 21 February 2012).

For Antony cycling not only makes environmental sense it also makes a lot of economic sense. “I can get around quickly and cheaply and easily carry my buckets and gear,” says Antony. He was asked to be a green champion because his work brings him into contact with lots of businesses and people in Fitzrovia and he is an ideal example of someone using cycling as a way to get around. “As a window cleaner I get to meet a lot of people and a variety of businesses in Fitzrovia. I’m also able to put people in touch with each other through my work,” says Antony.

“I got chosen as a green champion through these connections I have in the neighbourhood. I clean windows all over Fitzrovia. Lee Lyons of the Fitzrovia Partnership had seen me and said that Woof London, a marketing agency, were looking for suitable people to be green champions for a campaign that Camden Council were running. Lee thought I’d be good at this because I was using a bicycle to get around. “It’s easy for me to promote cycling because riding a bike is so necessary for me to do my job. People are often impressed that I carry all my gear on the bike including a folding ladder,” says Antony.

Most of his work is in Fitzrovia, but Antony also cycles to do a number of window cleaning jobs in, Regent’s Street and across the river in Waterloo. Antony has been a window cleaner for five years and has always got around by either walking or cycling. As it was Shrove Tuesday yesterday cyclists and walkers were treated to free pancakes at Whitfield Gardens and Bedford Square.

Here's another window cleaner that gets around town on a bike, see if you can recognize him...

The Cleaners Minimum Wage Dilemna

Charles Cestaro, who runs a cleaning business in the Bronx, pays most workers the minimum.

Fearing a Minimum Wage Increase Will Be Bad for Business: Charles Cestaro runs a prospering business in the Bronx cleaning offices and stores, and he knows firsthand what the work is like because he himself long toiled as a cleaner. As a teenager, he found a job as a window washer, hauling a bucket and a squeegee to delis and dry cleaners in the North Bronx. He worked his way up, literally, strapping himself to apartment windows 10 floors high and also waxing floors and scrubbing “way too many bathrooms.” Today, Mr. Cestaro’s Servco Industries, based in a coffee-colored, one-story bunker in Westchester Square, has annual sales of over $5 million and clients that include Sears and Kmart stores. Like many cleaning contractors, he pays most workers $7.25 an hour, the minimum under federal and state law.

The State Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg recently announced that they wanted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, or roughly $17,000 a year. It would be a 17 percent increase, and the first since the previous federal increase, three years ago. “People who work full time should not be poor,” Mr. Silver said, arguing that the current minimum wage was too low for survival. But Mr. Cestaro fears that if he charges more he will lose customers, a concern shared by many other business owners in fiercely competitive, low-skilled businesses like fast-food restaurants and some manufacturing. “They’re not going to want to absorb it,” Mr. Cestaro, 54, said. “They’ll say, ‘Let’s do it ourselves. We can save a bundle of money.’ ”

Mr. Cestaro, who employs 250 workers, argues that he provides jobs that are in precious demand in a lagging economy. “There’s a need to fill positions that don’t require a specific skill,” he said. “When the labor rate moves up, what happens to those people who don’t have a skill? When the day comes when the labor rate is $11, where I can buy a more skilled labor force because I was forced to pay that wage, what’s going to happen to those people who don’t have a skill set?”

As he sees it, the 60 to 75 people — most Latino immigrants — who every week apply for a job at his company are evidence of the demand for jobs paying $7.25 an hour. One of Mr. Cestaro’s workers, Rosa Castillo (below), 39, works from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. at a Kmart in the Bronx, swabbing restrooms, vacuuming floors, emptying trash containers. She works seven days a week so she can earn overtime. She took the job after moving to the city six weeks ago from Mission, Texas, where her mother and six siblings live, and failing to find work as a waitress. She can afford New York, she said, because she lives rent-free at her uncle’s apartment. Except for necessities like subway fare, she sends almost all her earnings to her husband, who lives in Honduras with their stepdaughter.

Rosa Castillo, who works for Mr. Cestaro, would like the minimum wage raised but is concerned that her hours could be cut.

She would like the minimum wage raised but has qualms. “I think it’s good because I’d be able to make more money,” she said. But she fears that her hours could be cut and that she would earn even less.

Mr. Cestaro, a trimly built, amiable man who favors designer jeans and leather boots, has had his share of lucky breaks, but his business story is mostly one of hard work. He is a workaholic who has not taken a vacation in five years. His major indulgences are his red Ferrari 360 Spider convertible, which costs $240,000, his collection of guitars and the time he spends with his 7-year-old daughter, Giselle.

When rock ’n’ roll gigs were not earning him a living at 20, he trimmed his shaggy hair, pulled out his single earring and, in 1979, with his father’s financial help, started a door-to-door cleaning company out of his parents’ home. Within four years, he was renting a $300-a-month storefront and employing two workers. His first boldface-name client was Giorgio Armani in Manhattan. He learned how risky the business could be when one of his cleaners accidentally sprayed bleach on a $16,000 Armani dress. Mr. Cestaro, with some proceeds from his insurance company, bought the blemished dress, and his sister altered it into a skirt for his niece.

“It’s a nonrespected industry because people can buy the service at the same price you’re charging,” he said. “People don’t look at cleaning bathrooms or carpets as a skilled trade.” He says that in 1996 he was charging clients $15.50 per worker per hour and that he is probably charging $15.50 to $17.50 today. His profit margin, he said, has declined to 9 percent from about 15 percent a decade ago.

His argument that raising the minimum wage might frighten clients is not uncommon in low-wage industries. Jamie Richardson, vice president of the 415-branch White Castle hamburger chain, said that if New York raised its wage, he might trim staff members or choose new locations in states like Indiana and Tennessee with lower minimums. “Adding costs is a job killer,” Mr. Richardson said. “Our customers are real resistant to paying more.”

However, a champion of raising the minimum wage, David Bolotsky, the chief executive of Uncommon Goods, a Brooklyn-based firm that sells designer gift items and pays its entry-level workers $10 an hour, said, “I could not look at myself in the mirror and pay somebody $7.25 an hour — you can’t live on it.”

For Mr. Cestaro, figuring out his price point can involve higher mathematics. He charges by floor space and what he calls density; an office floor that has 10,000 square feet with five desks is less costly than one with 80 desks. Apparel stores are a special category; clothing and sales tags have to be picked off the floor before mopping and waxing can begin. Restaurants are also a challenge because of the meticulous detail work required by health department letter grades.

Particularly skilled cleaners will receive up to $11 an hour. Cleaners in buildings that require unionized workers start at $9.20 an hour. Even a $7.25 worker costs an extra $1.74 for every hour worked because of liability and disability insurance, Social Security and other costs. Equipment can also be expensive; drivable scrubbing machines cost up to $12,000 each.

Should the minimum wage be raised this year, Mr. Cestaro cannot charge a store like Sears any more because he is under a long-term contract. “Sears could care less what the minimum wage is,” he said, “because I’m obligated to them until 2015.”

Irelands Tallest Skyscraper Gets A Clean

The Obel Tower is Irelands tallest building and is quite a challenge for the window cleaners.

Ballymena firm hires special team for skyscraper windows operation: A Ballymena cleaning firm has had to hire a special abseiling team to ensure that thousands of windows on Ireland’s tallest skyscraper are sparkling clean. Central Cleaning Site and Maintenance Ltd. has the contract to clean the windows on the 28 storey Obel Tower in Belfast and have called in specialists from Scotland, who perform work at heights that would make even Spiderman dizzy. The company has brought in Industrial Rope Access Trade Association-trained cleaners and thankfully vertigo isn’t an option for these brave cleaners, as the building stands at almost 300ft tall. Cleaning his fair share of the tower’s 4,565 window panels is dare devil cleaner Lee Green.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph he said: “You can’t think much when you are going over the edge- you just have to do it. You just make sure and check that the equipment is all in order and then go over. “The views are amazing, but you are pretty exposed at times and if the wind is high it can blow you across several floors of the building, which is pretty scary. But that’s all part of the experience. “You really have to have faith in the equipment. It’s pure agony hanging in a harness for hours. But we rub Olbas oil onto our thighs at night and that seems to soothe the aching muscles a bit.”

There are almost 200 residential apartments and London law firm Allen & Overy rents out all the office space at the tower which was completed in 2008. The windows are cleaned every three to six months and is a painstaking process that requires the highest skill and attention.  Mr. Green added: “Every time that we do a drop from the top to the bottom it takes about an hour and 40 minutes. It takes about 40 drops to do the whole building and we do about six drops a day. “We wear woolly hats underneath our helmets, gloves and thermals because it does get quite cold when you are hanging around all day. “But next time we’re here it will be summer, so hopefully we’ll get a bit of sunshine.”

Costing £60 million and measuring 85 metres (279 ft) in height, the tower dominates the Belfast skyline. On completion it overtook the previous tallest skyscraper in Ireland, Windsor House (80 m), also in Belfast. Developed by the Karl Group, the Obel Tower is located on Donegall Quay on the River Lagan beside the Lagan Weir.

An Equipment Failure & New Window Cleaning Record?

George Lynn is going for a Guinness world record for cleaning windows.

Window record open: Most 63-year-olds with rheumatoid arthritis would be more than happy to put their feet up and relax in their retirement days. George Lynn, however, is not your average 63-year-old.

The Mirrabooka pensioner has now travelled across Australia four times in an effort to establish a Guinness world record for the most windows washed in a year. The window-washing bug first bit him in 1988, when he stopped over in Abu Dhabi with no local currency. “I was in the airport with no local currency, and I found a café owner that spoke English, and I asked him if he could make me a cup of tea if I washed his windows,” he said. “He told me he’d make me a cup of tea and also give me five dollars – and I’ve been washing windows ever since.”

Despite his severe arthritis, George is aiming to wash one million windows between Australia Day 2012 and Australia Day 2013. “I’ve already done 4000 windows so far, so I am going to have a decent crack at it,” he said. “In four attempts I’ve not managed to get upwards of one million – but I’m hoping my luck will change this year. “I’ve got all the documentation I need, I just need to get the windows done.”

George charges $2 per window, with one third going to the RFDS, one third going to the Cancer Council and one third to himself. “I can assure you I’m not making a quid out of it. It’s just enough to support my pension and keep me washing windows.”

Crane malfunctioned atop San Francisco high rise: A crane accident happened in the Financial District Sunday around 2:30 p.m. A crane came loose dangled off a high rise at the corner of California and Kearny streets. About five tons of mechanical equipment inside a container dangled off the side of the Bank of America building, near the top, right over Kearney Street. Workers told ABC7 they were installing new window washing gear on the roof of the Bank of America building and have been doing it for the past three days, but they said the load that got stuck was the heaviest load they've lifted so far. The weight proved to be too much for the crane. The container weighs 11,000 pounds and it was dangling over 500 feet in the air. "It contains two spools of wire weighing about 11,000 pounds and the winch snapped, so now the only way they can get it up there is they're going to have to hand crank it. It's about 100 feet they have to bring it up. It's going to take about 3-3.5 hours. There's no danger right now. We've got everything locked down, we've got traffic and pedestrians out of the area. We've got officers at all the corners to make sure that nobody gets in there," said San Francisco Police Sgt. Joe Fisher. There were two men cranking the container up and around 6 p.m. they were moving it at a rate of 20 feet in an hour. This caused traffic jams all over the area and Chinatown.

Chris Dawber - Write A Book - "Job Done"

Click to see the book.

This is a book from a window cleaner we all know well from his YouTube videos. Chris Dawber (aka Wagga) says he began to write this book out of bitterness. Bitterness at all the hard work and failure he has endured in his life, but as he progressed through his book, he began to realize how many experiences he could share with others. This is largely an account of an ordinary man searching for a place in life and trying to find out just who he is. Much of what Chris did was borne mainly out of fear, fear and failure. This was to lead Chris into all sorts of adventures and situations that he could not cope with, let alone have the ability to carry out with any competence. From cleaning toilets to Royal Naval Aircrew, Merchant Seaman to Psychiatric Nurse and even a window cleaner, a life lived to the full, he regrets none of it. This led to many humorous and some dangerous situations, many of which he sought to escape by Running For Home. A book, written with honesty and sincerity - this book may help anyone to come to terms with their lot in life! Just to remind you... Chris in action..

A few snippets from Chris...

I was cleaning windows for over 20 years until I changed my system over to what is called WFP (water fed pole) where ladders are not required. In all this time I never once fell off. There were some very close shaves though. Several times the ladders slipped a bit then stopped. Once a rung snapped but it was the last but one, closest to the ground, so I just fell backwards onto the grass without injury. Once when my wife was working with me, I climbed onto a roof to do a window above a porch. I had muddy boots and as I got to the window I slipped, began to slide back down the roof on my bum, my progress only halted by the plastic gutter into which both feet went. This flexed alarmingly and I was terrified and called out to my wife to catch me if I fell, which sounds hilarious now. Somehow I managed to get back to the ladders"

Some customers have been the same ones since I first started window cleaning in 1986 up to 2011 as I write this. Many became friends and many now know my name. Sadly several have died and I can remember most of them and hear their voices. One of my customers was actually murdered. My wife and I would talk to her every time we cleaned the windows. Then one day the whole of Aycliffe Village was crawling with police but I did not know at the time what was going on. It was only several weeks later whilst we were watching Crime Watch on TV that we realised what had happened. We had no information so we did not ring up Crime Watch but in hindsight, we should have done. Its just that I had felt that the police had been incompetent in not talking to me when they saw me in the village cleaning windows. It was as though I was invisible or something. Some years later, I asked a detective who’s house I cleaned, how the case had gone since I had an interest. I mentioned that no one had thought to interview me and my wife and surely the forensic team had found the ticket that I had put through her letter box. It was the very same stamp I used to make the ticket that he got in his letter box. I said “Surely you found my ticket?” The next time he saw me, he knew my name and appeared to know quite a lot about me.

One morning a few years back, I had just started work when an elderly woman came out of the house next to the one I was cleaning. She was obviously in distress and shouted that her husband had collapsed. She was on the phone and the emergency services were talking to her when I entered her house. I found her husband Francis, aged 78 collapsed on the floor of the kitchen. He’d obviously fallen against the wall and was sat up. His eyes were slightly open and I could not see any movement whatsoever. My worst fears began to set in as my training in the forces kicked in once again. The first thing I did was check for a pulse, first on his neck and finding none, on his wrist. At first I could not believe that there was no pulse so I checked over and over again. I said to his wife, “there’s no pulse”. The emergency services asked her to tell me to start CPR. I knew what I had to do and dragged Francis into the hall where I began to try and breath some life back into him.

I opened his mouth and breathed into his. His chest rose. He had been sick and I could feel bits of vomit in my own mouth. I didn’t feel sick though, that would come later when the adrenalin wore off. I pumped at his chest, counting as I went, then back to giving him air. It seemed to go on for ages. When would the ambulance arrive. On and on it went, some colour returning to his face but I was getting no response. Still no pulse. On and on without success.

Then the paramedics burst in and took over. Their professionalism really showed since they did not just brush me aside but instead asked me to help carry him into the living room where there was much more space. Then said its okay, "we’ll take over now."

I stood in the doorway watching as they did all they could to bring him back but the monitor stayed resolutely blank. They began shaking their heads. I knew it was over but still could not accept he was dead. I sat in the kitchen where his wife made me a cup of tea. When the doctor arrived he pronounced Francis dead. The tears rolled down my face, but one of the paramedics consoled me by asking if I had done this sort of thing before. I said I had been in the Navy. He nodded knowingly.

If you feel that this book would interest you or you have enjoyed or learned from Wagga's videos, please shake your pocket & give something back. As Chris would say... "Job Done!"

The NZ Window Washer Who Survived

Giant fall but she's fearless: The teenager who miraculously survived a 30m fall on to concrete can't wait to get back into abseiling. For the first time, 18-year-old Louisa Kuypers, a window washer, has spoken about what happened last Friday afternoon, after she launched herself off the roof of an office building in Auckland's Newmarket. "The rope was meant to stretch then tighten up, but I could feel it had gone further. "I don't remember the fall exactly, but apparently people in the office heard me scream."

Unconscious, Kuypers was rushed to Auckland City Hospital's intensive care unit. She had five dislocated ribs, a hairline fracture in her eye socket and broken bones in her neck, ankle, shoulder and collarbone. "There's a pretty small chance of surviving a fall from that height," Kuypers said from her hospital bed yesterday. The roof did not have "eye bolts" where the abseiling ropes would usually be attached, she said. "The guy I was working with isn't coping too well. There's no blame, but he blames himself."

It was the second miraculous escape from abseiling in three months. Mikaela Blayney, 20, fell from the Event Cinema building in Aotea Square in December during an acrobatic performance. But both Blayney and Kuypers said they planned to get back into abseiling. "We're always outside, always abseiling. I want to get back to work," Kuypers said.

New Pingit App' Aimed At Paying UK Window Cleaners

Transferring cash to be as easy as texting a friend thanks to new smartphone app: Transferring money could soon be as easy as sending a text, thanks to a smartphone app released today. It allows people to send up to £300 by entering the recipient’s mobile phone number, removing the need to know sort codes and account numbers. The free Pingit app is the latest hi-tech challenger to the cheque. It transfers money instantly, allowing the recipient to withdraw it from a cash machine straight away.

The system has been developed by Barclays, but will be available to customers of other banks and building societies from next month. At first it will only allow individuals to transfer cash to each other, but there are plans to open it up for use with businesses and charities. In order to send money, customers must have a smartphone such as an iPhone or BlackBerry and download the Pingit app.

They must also enter their account details and set up a  five-digit PIN. Those receiving a Pingit transfer do not need a smartphone themselves, but must be registered for the service. Barclays said the technology had ‘huge potential’, with 50 per cent of the population expected to have a smartphone by the end of the year. The bank’s head of current accounts, Dan Wass, said the app was ‘the first service of this type to be launched across Europe’.

He added: ‘It is like having a bank in your pocket all the time. It allows you to send payments to anyone in the UK, simply by knowing their mobile number . . . [it] makes sending and receiving money as easy, quick and convenient as sending a text. 'Payments such as sending money to children, for a birthday or spending money, or even to a window cleaner, can be made in seconds.’At first, only over-18s will be able to use Pingit, but the age limit is likely to be lowered in the coming months. Barclays stressed that the system is secure, and said that if a customer’s mobile phone is stolen, thieves would not be able to send money without the five-digit PIN. Users will also be able to disable the app if their phone is lost or stolen.

The Barclays Pingit system uses a smartphone app to permit person-to-person cash transfers of up to £300. Users who have an account with Barclays - and from March anyone with a UK bank account - can download the app, link it to their phone number, and then send cash to anybody who has linked their mobile number to their account. But the launch of Pingit could be the moment everything changes. The scheme has two features which make it stand out from previous initiatives and could appeal to a mass audience. For a start, you can see a real need being met - who hasn't been part of that scrabbling around for cash when you sort out a restaurant bill or try to pay a window cleaner? And then there is the fact that the technology - an app - is one with which anyone who has got a smartphone is now familiar. You don't need to go out and buy a new NFC handset, and then hope all your friends get one too. And at the heart of it is a powerful idea - that your mobile phone number can become the key to your bank account without you having to hand over your banking details to anyone who wants to pay you.

Pingit – now pinging money around from phone to phone: Want us to send you £300? Just give us your mobile phone number then. No, don’t, because we’ve got no intention of giving you £300. Ever. So forget we said it. But if we wanted to, we could do it. That’s because Barclays bank have unfurled a new app, called Pingit, that allows their current account holders to send and receive cash using only their mobile phones. You can use it to send cash up to the aforementioned sum of £300 to anyone as long as you have their mobile number.

How doth it worketh? Simpleth – users call the recipient’s mobile number via the Pingit app, key in an amount between £1 and £300, and hit send. The money is moved between the two current accounts using the Faster Payments service taking as little as 30 seconds. Barclays say that it will be useful in circumstances such as splitting a restaurant bill or paying for lapdances. Sorry, that should have been paying the window cleaner or other small tradesmen. Pingit is available for iPhone, Blackberry and Android-powered phones. Impressively, they say that although non-Barclays customers can only receive payments at the moment, they’ll shortly be able to send them as well, meaning that Pingit could become the standard app for this sort of thing.