What do you do about windows when you pressure wash?

Gary Mauer

Gary Mauer

New member
I'll tell you right off I'm nearly clueless about the pressure washing business. (Note entirely - but nearly.)
So - at times when windows are affected, what do you do?
Scrub and squeegee?
Ignore?
Watefed pole wash & rinse?
 
When soft washing a house, I apply the house wash mix everywhere, especially on the windows and once it is clean then rinse everything, especially a good rinse on the windows. It does a great job on the windows, especially if there is a lot of dirt, mold, mildew and algae on them.

I tell the homeowners up front that there might be some water spots as we have hard water in our area but if they want them professionally cleaned I don't offer that but I can recommend someone that can come out there but don't know what they charge. So far I have not had any say that they will need a window cleaner come out after I finished and the water spots that are sometimes there are not a huge issue so far.

I am sure that there will be some customers that will want the windows perfect and that is ok, I don't offer those services as they are hardly ever asked for and I have a great friend of many years that is a professional window cleaner that I will recommend if those opportunities happen.
 
Yes, they are a lot cleaner and the windows sparkle when I am done with no extra equipment than what I use for house washing.

I know the windows could be cleaner if they hired a professional window cleaner, they can scrape the excess paint off the windows that is still there from when the house was painted or they could take the screens off and clean them better but so far my customers have been very happy with the results of the housewash by soft washing and how the windows look when I am done.
 
On all commercial work I at least squeegee down the windows of any over spray. If they want the windows fully washed then I charge extra for it.
 
Gary Mauer said:
By fully, you mean scrub them up and squeegee off?
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Yes, but if I do that then I charge extra. No charge though for just squeegee any overspray I left.
 
Gary Mauer said:
Nope - starting out here with a clean slate.
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I'm sure you heard of guys in New construction washing windows with Pressure washer, most guys will rinse the windows with pressure washer, they simply run a squeegee over the glass. Some rinse with pure water...

No mop needed unless they allow the wondow to dry with sidewalk goo on it.
 
Gary, I stared window cleaning 26 years ago and got into pressure cleaning because painters and pressure washers were ruining the windows of my clients.Bleach will etch the glass and make a 6 inch blade skid on the glass instead of going smoothly when wet. Even if it looks good after cleaning. The only way to find this out is if your a window cleaner and observe change between cleanings.Best to pre wet , keep wet, and I agitate with a brush then rinse. Large jobs i use a WFP.there are some additives that help.
 
Jim, Can you rephrase that part about bleach making the scraper skid?
I got hung up on that because the words skid and slip memm  mean sorta the same to me - I've done a lot of scraping, but I haven't done any work with bleach.
Is there another way to describe that?
 
Maybe glide is a better word ? The blade goes from being able to glide smoothly to skidding making it less productive and a pain to remove paint.The surface of the glass is changed .The glass used for storms (triple tracts) seems to be affected more. I had a great residential customer base back in the late 80's and through the 90's and this always happened after painting and pressure cleaning. I noticed it after I washed a house because I still maintain a few large properties every year.
 
With a basic wash the windows get sprayed with soap and rinsed well.
The middle package includes brushing them with a truck brush after soap is applied and then rinsing.
Most of my customers opt for the deluxe package so we thoroughly clean the windows with a wfp and pure water.

We use Simple Cherry from Pressure Tek. It has an excellent mix of surfactants, water softeners, and sheeting agents so it really does a great job on windows. I also use it for a pre-scrub on hydrophobic glass before wfp.
 
I'm wondering now that we have Gary an Expert on Glass Damage, what are the chems we want to stay away from Gary?

Thad said:
With a basic wash the windows get sprayed with soap and rinsed well.
The middle package includes brushing them with a truck brush after soap is applied and then rinsing.
Most of my customers opt for the deluxe package so we thoroughly clean the windows with a wfp and pure water.

We use Simple Cherry from Pressure Tek. It has an excellent mix of surfactants, water softeners, and sheeting agents so it really does a great job on windows. I also use it for a pre-scrub on hydrophobic glass before wfp.
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Gary Mauer said:
Thad,
Would that truck brush be waterfed?
Then would you be feeding tap water to it instead of pure water?
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No, just a soft brush on a pole and then rinse with the pw. We wash with low pressure so spraying the windows directly won't cause any problems.
 
Thad said:
No, just a soft brush on a pole and then rinse with the pw. We wash with low pressure so spraying the windows directly won't cause any problems.
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The reason I asked is that a lot of new construction clean up is done with a PW at 3500 on glass with Hot water. I remember back in the day guys Scrapping the lights with the stickers all over them an damaging the glass.

Gary on the BBS we have a Great guy for understanding Glass an how to prevent Glass Damage.
 
Ron Musgraves said:
I'm wondering now that we have Gary an Expert on Glass Damage, what are the chems we want to stay away from Gary?
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Maybe you're overselling me, Ron.
I don't know a lot about chemistry.
Gotta think about that, and maybe hear more about chems you guys use.

It seems in window cleaning we use chemicals differently - one window at a time, deliberate application, typically with agitation or scraping.
And we're not fighting mold or moss.

So far it doesn't sound like bleach is safe for glass - and I know you want to avoid hydrofluoric acid, because it will react with tin, and one side of glass always has trace amounts of tin.
 
Ron Musgraves said:
The reason I asked is that a lot of new construction clean up is done with a PW at 3500 on glass with Hot water. I remember back in the day guys Scrapping the lights with the stickers all over them an damaging the glass.

Gary on the BBS we have a Great guy for understanding Glass an how to prevent Glass Damage.
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Who's that, and where does he hang out?
 
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