Hosepipe bans won't really have an effect come a drought, if it got so bad they would stop you using it to clean windows we would all be in dire straights indeed
As for the winter weather...I'm dreading a really bad cold one!
But there are things that can be done to at least cut down the problems.
The window cleaner I was talking to a couple of weeks ago (when I was timing another one across the road
) mentioned a guy who was trying to sell a product to stop the water freezing on pavements and paths.
Rather than carry around large quantities of road salt to throw down, this guy is promoting a hand held sprayer, much like you will use to spray fertiliser or bug spray on you garden, you know the ones, the pump up ones.
In this is a clear antifreeze/defrost type solution that you spray onto the areas you have wetted with the water, sounds like a da
mn good idea to me, I'll try and find out more about it.
There is also some kind of alcohol you can put into the water too, though what the cost of this is I have no idea.
Many if not most of the window cleaners on the forum haven't been going long enough to have gone through a severe winter, having days on end with the water freezing in your BOAB, your scrims freezing into lumps of cardboard, the water freezing constantly on the glass, it'll cause hardships for trad cleaners too.
I'm am very lucky in that most of my bread and butter work is shop fronts, at least if the weather does get as bad as the doom-sayers are predicting, then I'll just go back to using trad, I use it a lot anyway, but I won't be climbing ladders again...apart from my pointer perhaps.
But as I said, I am lucky in that I have that option.
Only time will tell what kind of a winter we are going to have come January eh?
Terry mentions the cost of the systems as being expensive, some of them are to be sure, but for under 2 grand you can be up and running with a custom built system, and that is ignoring the fact that you can also go the DIY way and get up and running cheaper still.
How many of you have the full package with satelite TV? How new are some of your computers? Got broadband too? How much did you pay for your car?
An don't forget, some of the companies will lease you the equipment, or you can buy it on the never never...
For the one man band the cost simply is not exorbitant, different for the larger companies, they will have to invest tens of thousands of pounds in some cases.
My cup is always half full, never half empty
Ian
