Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: [GQC] Tim on May 21, 2008, 04:18:49 pm
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Quite a big house, a mix of normal windows, and some traditional leaded windows, baptism by fire I thought, was a new customer as well, so I had to clean it today (appointment)
To my relief she was out, so I had plenty of time to fiddle around, and dragging the hose through plants, and half the garden, just managed to avoid a big dog poo as well, phew.
Anyway, the normal windows had wooden frames, and I thought it would be okay to clean the frame. Second window I did, I thought, that's strange.....the water doesn't rinse away from the window.
Yea you guessed it, it was on the inside. The window frame itself had a bit of a gap at the top, and I was happily scrubbing the frame. I quickly stopped as soon as I saw that. On each other window after that, I turned off the flow, and scrubbed the top frame, wet the brush on the window, and scrubbed again without having the flow on (do you think that is okay to do btw?).
(At the end of the post I'll let you know if I flooded the place or not. ;D )
Then I focused on the window, first did the top really well, couple of scrubs, then did the pane vertically twice, put the brush back to the top, and brush on rinsed off. Windows sheeted magnificently.
Then the trad. leaded windows. I thought, hmm this could get water in, they looked very old.
So what I did is, I have a numatic trigger on the pole, so I pressed the trigger only now and then, whilst scrubbing, so not too much water would go in, then for the rinse, I held the trigger.
I must confess, I was struggling a bit with dragging the hose behind me, even though I started at the furthest point.
So, I inspected the windows, and the normal ones came up beautifully.
One of the leaded windows, had quite a lot of dirt still on there, I think the bits between the lead were terribly dirty, all the other groundfloor leaded windows looked fine to me, was happy about that. Couldn't see the top windows if they were clean or not.
Just realised I forgot to go back do the door with a microfibre, had a nice floor mat which I didn't want to wet hehe.
Now I grabbed my ladder to see what the damage was on the first window, I thought, oh no......prepared myself for the worst. Climbed up, and luckily, there were only a few drops on the bit of metal that you use to open the window with. I was so relieved you wouldn't believe it.
Now, I had an absolute nightmare rolling the minibore back in again, it kinked like a maniac, it took me 10!!!! minutes to get it on the reel. I was SO glad nobody was in, it was embarrassing! Phew, I had a red head, even though nobody was there!
I'm wondering if I perhaps put the minibore on the reel the wrong way, hose has always got a certain bend in it, maybe I put it on the reel the other way, what do you think?
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Don't know about minibore,Tim, I use microbore and only get problems when it's getting old. New microbore never seems to kink.
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Dont worry too much about the hose kinking, it will straigten itself soon, just make sure that you leave the hose under pressure for the 1st couple of days, this will speed up the straightening. By under pressure i mean tunr on the varistream, let it build up pressure, but dont attach a pole hose, when under pressure it wil be easier to real in and pull out.
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Dont worry too much about the hose kinking, it will straigten itself soon, just make sure that you leave the hose under pressure for the 1st couple of days, this will speed up the straightening. By under pressure i mean tunr on the varistream, let it build up pressure, but dont attach a pole hose, when under pressure it wil be easier to real in and pull out.
I really hope so, because it really was a nightmare, kinks galore. It was not an exaggeration that it took me 10min. :-\
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where did you get your minibore from Tim?
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When you walk back to your hose reel, Take the end of your hose back with you and along the way, just check to see there are no obstacles in the way to trap your hose when you reel it in.
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where did you get your minibore from Tim?
I got it from Gardiners
When you walk back to your hose reel, Take the end of your hose back with you and along the way, just check to see there are no obstacles in the way to trap your hose when you reel it in.
Yea I did that.
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I use 6mm microbore from Gardiners and have never had any problems with it kinking! ???
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Park somewhere with loads of room ie an emptyish car park and reel it right out,when you`ve reeled it right out twist it until it`s straight with no kinks reel it back on slowly so it fits on the reel right and in line,when you`ve done this once it should bed in and stay in that position.I did mine on a hot day so that it was nice and supple and easy to manipulate to where i wanted it,minibore is better than microbore it gives a superior flow rate.
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Park somewhere with loads of room ie an emptyish car park and reel it right out,when you`ve reeled it right out twist it until it`s straight with no kinks reel it back on slowly so it fits on the reel right and in line,when you`ve done this once it should bed in and stay in that position.I did mine on a hot day so that it was nice and supple and easy to manipulate to where i wanted it,minibore is better than microbore it gives a superior flow rate.
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Park somewhere with loads of room ie an emptyish car park and reel it right out,when you`ve reeled it right out twist it until it`s straight with no kinks reel it back on slowly so it fits on the reel right and in line,when you`ve done this once it should bed in and stay in that position.I did mine on a hot day so that it was nice and supple and easy to manipulate to where i wanted it,minibore is better than microbore it gives a superior flow rate.
Haven't I heard that somewhere before? ;)
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Yeah maybe i should change my name to Groundhog like you. ::) ::) ::) ::)
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Thanks NWH, that's a really good tip, well it's midnight now, I bet Tesco's car park is empty hehe. Well I'll probably get mugged if I would do that, yikes. ;D
So what do you guys think about the technique I used on the leaded, is that something that you do or, should I use a different technique?
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Did my second house today (I left wednesday, today and tomorrow to fiddle around, but people called me up, and asked if they could have them cleaned) Really minging frames, did inside and out, and they came up beautifully, brush on rinsing, got a £3 tip as well because she was so pleased. :)