[Mike 108]

Cleaned 2 adjacent houses this morning. All windows covered in salt.

One house had all glass that 'curtained' when wet, the other mostly glass that 'beaded'.

I used a stiff bristled brush on all upstairs windows (new Vikan recangular, all red bristles) and a soft bristled brush (Cleantech yellow) on all downstairs windows.

Each house normally takes me 50 mins (trad) or  40 mins (WFP)

Today used WFP and because the windows were so bad I spent 60 mins on each.

 I must have scrubbed every area of glass at least half a dozen times (mixing vertical strokes with horizontal strokes).

I then rinsed, using 'gallons' of water - first on the glass, then off the glass.

I couldn't possibly have done them any better (you may disagree!) and was as confident as I could be (especially with the 'curtaining' glass) that they would all dry 95-100% perfect.

I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!

20% were OK
40% were not OK
40% were an absolute disgrace

There were white, salty streaks from top to bottom on 40% of the windows (regardles of the type of glass, or which brush had been used .

There was no way I could leave the windows in such condition.  Off came the ladders and 40% of the windows were re-done using Squeegee Off and a 'blade'.

On this occasion, I'd have been better off cleaning them 'trad' from the start.

I 'blow hot and cold' about WFP.

Sometimes I get all enthusiastic and at other times I seriously question its reliability.

I've just gone and bought 2 large Di bottles (while feeling enthusiastic) but am now considering going back to 'trad' cleaning wherever possible.

Putting the danger/safety issue aside - the good thing about 'trad' is that if you get it wrong, you can usually spot it while still at the window and rectify matters straight away.

With WFP you don't know if you've made a mess until much later (or sometimes not at all if you're only relying on the customer to ring up and tell you)

I welcome your advice/comments/sympathy - but must dash as I am now well behind with my day's work.

Will catch up with you all later.

Thanks

Mike

 

[oliver collins]

Hi mike i have had the same problem for years using wfp i live in a sea side town and i clean houses and pubs cafes all get covered in what i would call sea fret its horrible to clean off,after trying loads of methords i clean the property let it dry off and then go back later in the day to clean the property again the results are good and stops you from wasting time and water.Its worth sticking with though.
Oliver Collins Rise & Shine Window Cleaning

[Pole2pole]

Wow.........that's tough fella. That would send me close to the edge, but i am a stress bag at the best of times. I'm not the one who's gonna tell you how and why the results were so bad. I can't answer that. But what i can say is, i must have over 600 accounts and "never" do i get results that bad. I can't recall the last time i had a complaint about wfp,except for the usual "my house is flooded" and " how do you dry them?"comments. Don't you dare give up mate. To do so would be a financial and safety disaster. Financial for all the money you have invested and all of the "potential" earnings you can earn in the future. Would you consider just dropping this job? Most on here will probably tell you that after a couple of cleans the results will get better,but they may not. My advice would be to lose the job. You'll pick another one up in no time to replace it. Hope my comments help  

[robbie14000]

Mike- I went through a period of the same happening to me .
I was not confident leaving properties not knowing if I had done a good job or not,.
I was finding I was taking longer by wfp than doing them by trad and was totally hacked off with it all.

Was it a first time clean on the property in question and were the frames cleaned first.
Are your filters ok and was tds 000 and do you backwash your system regularly.

I still have the odd occassion were we get the odd spotting or runs but can now honestly say wfp is great.
Just bear with it mate as it will come goog.

I think also I would not have redone them by trad as this is just going to make the next clean harder in trying to change them over to wfp.
Mike were the windows wooden frames or pvc.
at the end of the day though there are some windows out there that will just not take wfp and keep coming out bad.
Hope it improves for you mate.
Robbie

[NWH]

What frames were they,and forget that vikan on easy clean window`s let along seafront salt covered ones.

[windowwashers]

sounds like there was salt still at the top dragging down when rinsing to me, did the frames go milky as they can be a royal pain in the bum.

if it makes you feel any better I lost one of my safety signs today £60 down the drain 

[wightsurf]

You could'nt get much saltyer where i live yet i don't get this problem WFP 2 years now, maybe just lucky   

[frames to panes]

Chatting to a new customer today (now miles away from the sea ) and they were telling me how they used to wash their windows with a hosepipe when they lived near the coast just to get the salt off. Now i know nothing, but would there be any advantage in using tap water for the initial clean (loads of it)?

[Jason Atwell]

Hi mike, yes the windows i did today were hard work too! (all trad)
Some i had to clean twice for it to be right!

Its just the weather we had last week, the wind was horendous, im guessing these houses were on princes way??
Iv been on highgate westgate and knowsley gate, so these probably were not quite as bad as yours.

Maybe people inland dont realise the severity of this problem,

The whole window and frame can literally be coverered in a hard white salty substance, which when you run your applicator over it, makes such a scraping noise.

I dont think there is an answer other than what you did!! time consuming and a pain in the neck, but this only happens 2/3 times a year.

One idea, maybe hot water would dissolve the salt, you could invest in a hot water system, then when you retire, i could inherit it!!

Just a thought!!

[Wayne Thomas]

I clean a lot of windows on the coast. I never have any problems with salty windows using WFP but I use hot water and use plenty of water to wash them. I make sure I use a Tucker brush as it is the best brush for scrubbing windows. Nothing compares to it, not even an Ionics brush.

[Wayne Thomas]

Areas where I clean salty windys I get the customers on a monthly basis rather than 6 weekly or 2 monthly to make the window cleaning easier. My customers prefer to have them cleaned monthly as the salt is very noticeable. If you are cleaning customers in salty areas on 2 monthly advise them to change to monthly.

[Mike 108]

Hi all

Thanks for your replies to the above topic.

I've been doing these houses for 2 years now.  I did them 'trad' up till 3 months ago and always cleaned the frame as well (even above the push-outs).  The frames are white upvc.

I can remember having one nightmare day, 1 years ago, when I was doing them 'trad' and it was taking up to 3 washes per pane before I could squeegee them without leaving lines all over the place.

Perhaps they were just as badly contaminated today.

I was hoping, however, that WFPoling would flush all the salt away much better than it did.

Interestingly, I did more houses on the same row this afternoon - 'trad'.  Even after double washing I was finding squeegee lines on the glass and some smears - which I had to go back to and polish off.

So neither method of cleaning produced the usual standard of finish - but of the two methods, the 'trad' results were by far the best.

Robbie - My Di resin was new (tds 000)

NWH -  Why do you advise me to "forget that vikan on easy clean windows"?

DJW - Yes, I have occasionally pre-washed with plain Tap water first (on bungalows, not on houses) and it was much easier. It obviously took longer than a 'normal' clean - but perhaps that's the answer.

Oliver Collins - Doing what you suggest (in two visits) means virtually doing the job twice.  Do you just absorb that cost/time for the odd occasion that you do it, or do you charge extra?

Thanks all

Mike

[Pj]

I am doing a job right on the coast early tomorrow morning wfp.

If I can I'll take some before and after pics.  It's not a very big job but it may be interesting to see the results. 

I'm starting at 7 a.m. so we'll have to see how we get on

[NWH]

All the red vikan does is flick sand and salt all over the place,on these type of window`s you need a softer brush ie cleantech yellow.I do about 10 houses 20mtrs from the sea and use a good flow rate and don`t have a problem,there PVC and come up really good every time.I build a good head of water up at the top of the glass before i scrub and because there`s so much salt you need to use more water,i prefer the salmon type brushes inland but on seafronts i find a softer brush moves the salt a lot lot easier,hope this helps.

[dai]

Those top frames need a really good doing as well as the side ones, I usually leave the top if I can get away with it, but not when they are salty. Try doing the frames first and then going back to do the glass only. I rinse on and sweep the glass as I move the brush down. Try not to get water onto the frames on that last rinse.
I much prefer WFP after onshore gales, doing them trad was a right pain, if you do them trad, don't detail, or be prepared to go through 20 scrims a day. Dai