Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Londoner on April 06, 2009, 08:04:08 am
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I've been meaning to post about this for a few days. Last week while I was working I saw another window cleaner working on the other side of the road. Nothing at all unusual in that, happens all the time.
However, when I watched him he was just going up the ladder, wiping the window with a cloth and coming straight down.
Now I am interested so I watch him all the more. Yes, up the ladder, wipe and down. He's obviously a regular window by the way he talks to the customers.
So how does he do it? I couldn't get away with that.
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Not strange
Thats how they used to do it, he is probably an expert with the scrim
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He sounds like a "proper window cleaner" to me.
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On my old street the wc was the same, wooden ladder, scrim in either pocket and off he went :)
Windows always came up good!!
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On my old street the wc was the same, wooden ladder, scrim in either pocket and off he went :)
Windows always came up good!!
Till the sun comes out lol.
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Not strange
Thats how they used to do it, he is probably an expert with the scrim
And his equipment costs are minimal. ;)
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On my old street the wc was the same, wooden ladder, scrim in either pocket and off he went :)
Windows always came up good!!
Till the sun comes out lol.
So true, one round our way a regular uses the same method but also has a bucket of black water. Most of his custies have nets up.
Simon.
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On my old street the wc was the same, wooden ladder, scrim in either pocket and off he went :)
Windows always came up good!!
Till the sun comes out lol.
I rag occassionally where it's up high and blading isn't really an option. As long as you have a clean scrim to polish up the glass after washing it comes up good.
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its called Ragging ;D ;D u just smeer the dirt around with a moist scrim :o off comes the dirt not as good as squeegee ;D
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its called Ragging ;D ;D u just smeer the dirt around with a moist scrim :o off comes the dirt not as good as squeegee ;D
Thats right,
He's a ragger!!
Not good at all.
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they are called dirtmovers round here ;)
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its called Ragging ;D ;D u just smeer the dirt around with a moist scrim :o off comes the dirt not as good as squeegee ;D
You're absolutely right Mr Burrows sir. And on 99% of windows I wash, blade and detail...albeit not as fast as you sir ::)
But there are some windows where I'm up high and not "comfortable" and a quick rag and polish is by far the safer option for me. No, it's not as good as a good sharp squeegee but so what?...sooner leave a few bits of scrim on the glass that may or may not show up in full sunlight than overstretch to blade at the right angle and risk a fall...Mrs Cholmondeley-Smithies' windows aren't that important to me ;)
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its called Ragging ;D ;D u just smeer the dirt around with a moist scrim :o off comes the dirt not as good as squeegee ;D
You're absolutely right Mr Burrows sir. And on 99% of windows I wash, blade and detail...albeit not as fast as you sir ::)
But there are some windows where I'm up high and not "comfortable" and a quick rag and polish is by far the safer option for me. No, it's not as good as a good sharp squeegee but so what?...sooner leave a few bits of scrim on the glass that may or may not show up in full sunlight than overstretch to blade at the right angle and risk a fall...Mrs Cholmondeley-Smithies' windows aren't that important to me ;)
ooo'er, i sense a long thread on this one ;D ;D
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we have an old boy who scrims round here,even does shop windows that way ;D ;D
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we have an old boy who scrims round here,even does shop windows that way ;D ;D
Eh!!!!!!! ???!!!!!!!......I bet he's popular! ;D ;D
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we have an old boy who scrims round here,even does shop windows that way ;D ;D
Eh!!!!!!! ???!!!!!!!......I bet he's popular! ;D ;D
hes been cleaning windows for 40 years that way so yeh he is popular ;D ;D
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we have an old boy who scrims round here,even does shop windows that way ;D ;D
Eh!!!!!!! ???!!!!!!!......I bet he's popular! ;D ;D
hes been cleaning windows for 40 years that way so yeh he is popular ;D ;D
also goes to show ladders are save in the right hands ;D ;D
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bloke near me uses cut up t shirts! hardly touches them only portholes no framework and does a 3 bed bay front semi in under 5 mins ( i have timed him) he has over a thousand custies and been going nearly 15 years. Oh! and i also clean 4 of his, they keep him because so cheap ie £1.50 for bay front only, eveyone knows he is crap but he don't care
don't figure
paul
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my wife a good ragger . oops sorry
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a ladder
didnt you tell him they are illegal
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Before we used sqeegees it was all leather and scrim, if the windows were quite clean you could get away with scrimming only.
You can do a perfect job using scrim only, but it has to be clean and damp, it would need washing frequently, in clean water without any detergent, it was wringing them out dry enough to use that was the fun part, You would be waving the scrim about like a demented Injun sending smoke signals.
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I did 23 council houses on my own one day using the above method, that was in 1959 when I was 17.
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And at a tanner a house you earned eleven shillings and sixpence I guess. ;D
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They were 2/6d, half a crown in old money. I earned £2. 17/6d that day, and my wages were only £3 a week. That's when I realised how much the old sod was making on me, he never let us know the prices on the bigger jobs.
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I watched a scrimmer today he was cleaning faster than I could use a duster :o
Never seen anything like it, the same scrim for the whole of a large house georgian pane sash windows. I couldn't wfp that fast. So there's me with thousands of pounds worth of equipment and a new £400 pole and there's him with a rag! :-\
I can't believe the quality was any good - why don't we all stick a rag on the end of our poles?
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I believe that good resuts can be achieved with ragging Its the only way to do Georgian windows inside.
The scrim needs to be damp (not wet), folded and pulled tight over the fingers.
Its bloody hard work mind
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I'm sure Dai will back me up when I say that ALL window cleaning used to be done that way once upon a time. A skilled shiner could 'rag' a window no matter how dirty, and it would come up looking perfect. That was when we had 'proper' scrim - the rubbish you get now won't do it.
I learned the job on the old Victorian 'three decker' London schools - all tiny 'stamps' of glass, millions of them. There was no time to leather and then polish, you had to do it in one quick action with a scrim. Once you got the hang of it you could rag anything and get a good result.
We didn't use ladders on those schools, either - just climbed out of the windows and stood on the sills.
It would have scared the s**t out of you 'modern' cleaners who never even climb a ladder ;D ;D ;D
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All these posts of how good scrim works makes me seriously doubt it. Sure it might look clean, but c'mon, let the sun out please, and see.
Call me an unbeliever, but in my opinion no way.
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We didn't use ladders on those schools, either - just climbed out of the windows and stood on the sills.
It would have scared the s**t out of you 'modern' cleaners who never even climb a ladder ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D ;D
I stood a sill once and the bloody thing sheared off under my feet. Thankfully it was on the ground floor.
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Yep, when I started 26 years ago, we had estates of houses with georgian windows, and we would either use damp scrim or tap the scrim onto the damp shammy. Remember most people had their windows cleaned every fortnight, so they weren't that dirty.
I must have worked for at least a couple of years before we started using squeegies and sponges, another couple of years before we discovered tbar applicators.
The skin on our hands used to crack up every winter, especially at the end of the thumbs.
You could hear us "crack" drying the scrims streets away. Even when they were full of holes them scrims used to work great.
An old window cleaner told me he used to give his new scrims to his wife to clean the kitchen floor for a week before he would use them.