Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Darranvps on April 17, 2010, 12:53:02 pm
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Hi
What is the most dangerous window cleaning work, you have witnessed?
Mine was witnessed in the following pictures, taken in Varna, Bulgaria Summer 2009.
We had a team cleaning the external vertical windows, with WFP, but the so called Facilities Management company decided to let their own staff clean the 18m high glass roof! :o
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Here is how I cleaned glass roofs on a well known school in Bradford, West Yorkshire back in 2002 8)
Using a waterfed pole, with a safety harness attached to a tested mansafe system.
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Don't know what toughend glass is used in the UK Darran, but they use very thick stuff here on buildings like that, designed to walk on. We used to do the entrance roof work on a huge shopping mall in Germany. Not a problem. Just for my own piece of mind, I would always walk or stand on the framework where possible, but that's just me lol.
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The building is in Varna, Bulgaria. ;D
Probably is toughened glass, but one fall from one of those women with a brass squeegee in her hand..................
18 metres could be one hell of a fall.
Not sure what the Health and safety regs are like in Germany, but you wouldn't get away with that in the UK
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Yeah, know what you mean. But here, the glass has to have a measured weight carried spec. You are supposed to wear harness at that height that you show in that pic. Can't see any safety gear on the pic, but suppose that's how it goes in Bulgaria.
Added after, don't think I would let so many people work so close together on there just to test if it is strong enough though. ;D
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They were just the women who did the daily office cleaning. Their boss made them go up onto the roof to clean the glass. No safety harness etc
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They were big and HAIRY :P :P :P
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the 1 u just put up :o :o no way hosay ;D not 4all the t in china ;D
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That looks like the cinema near us, glad I only do domestic now ;D
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local ladder trad cleaners
(http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m248/markberesford/DSC00260.jpg)
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wot an idiot :o
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nowt wrong with that, he's got someone footing it.
dont u think it looks like he is only resting on 1side of the ladder???
or is it just me :-\
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Cant beat balancing the ladder one one side and holding it steady with the other arm, makes a man of you.
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Cant beat balancing the ladder one one side and holding it steady with the other arm, makes a man of you.
OR A DEAD ONE! ::)
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nowt wrong with that, he's got someone footing it.
dont u think it looks like he is only resting on 1side of the ladder???
or is it just me :-\
Also 2 other ladder appear to be untethered and unattended.
In a public area too.
Tsk tsk. ::)
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and that staffie hasn't got a muzzle on :o
Nor is there a "warning tree" sign on there. could walk straight into that thing
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nowt wrong with that, he's got someone footing it.
I agree. And it's right up in the corner, either side of the edge. That isn't going ANYWHERE.
Bunch of girls on here, there really is.
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yeahh, live a little!
i used 2 m8 ;) now ive had back opps 4 the last 4years :( only idiots take risks :(
i know better than most :(
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Cant beat balancing the ladder one one side and holding it steady with the other arm, makes a man of you.
;D ;D ;D
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there are loads of me floating around I'll keep an eye on here to see if any pop up. Ledge walking changing gantrees harness less, bouncing 35ft ladders from one window to another, you name it some plonker has taken pics of me doing it and stuck it on myspace/facebook. lol
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So what film did you see? :D
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there are loads of me floating around I'll keep an eye on here to see if any pop up. Ledge walking changing gantrees harness less, bouncing 35ft ladders from one window to another, you name it some plonker has taken pics of me doing it and stuck it on myspace/facebook. lol
thats working with safety in mind
on yr site mate up them ladders on that castle building
spelling mistakes every where on yr website too ??? ??? ???
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bouncing 35ft ladders from one window to another
that takes me back to when i was 19 :)
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I cringe inside when I think of the risks I took back in the day :o
Or the risks I got the lads who used to work for me do! :-\
On one job (still doing it to this day, WFP now though, charge more and what took 4 of us up to 5 hours now takes just me less than 3 hours ;)) we had to hire a 40ft plus huge triple to get to the 4th floor, cobble stone floor and surrounded by quaint shops & tea shops....people sat outside sipping tea's & munching on scones...nice eh?
So as the new guy (name of Lance Dunster, and boy, do I have some stories about him!) had only been with me a few days we sent him up to do the highest window on the job, ladder fully extended and a full audience sat at various tables enjoying their tea & scones.
Lance after some forceful persuasion dutifully starts climbing the ladder...but at about 35ft or so he freezes, shouting out that he can't go any higher.
No amount of further cajoling can get him to even move his deathlike grip on the ladder - let alone lift a foot up to the next rung - and now he's shouting out at the top of his voice that he's stuck...
The audience is now engrossed in the proceedings, cups halfway to their mouths. little fingers daintily cocked.
Snickering at his predicament we tell him to come down...but he's so frozen with fear he can't move a muscle (visions now of the fire brigade turning up with ambulance in attendance :'()
Our audience' tea's & coffees are all going cold, but I don't think they are bothered ;D ::)
So I climb up the ladder to "talk him down"
I look down at a sea of faces and try to tell the muppet to stop shouting! It's embarrassing innit? But he just gets louder and louder (thank god mobile phones with cameras hadn't been invented!) it took me a good 15 minutes to talk him down, I even had to prise his hands of the ladder stiles to get him moving...he clung to that ladder like a limpet all the way down...I felt like taking a bow to our audience once I'd got him down!!
On the same job (different occasion) another lad was up a ladder that was on a balcony, so he could get to a 3rd floor (counting the ground floor) window...except the floor was covered in the seeds of a Virginia creeper, the bottom of the ladder shot out, wedged in the far side of the narrow, but long balcony, top of ladder smashed through what from the ground would be a first floor window, Jon's leg had gone down between the rungs of the ladder and he was trapped and in agony at the height of the balcony railings, and yep, sigh, there was yet another engrossed audience enjoying their tea & scones ::)
One of my guys came to me (I was around other side of the building) panicking and telling me Jon had fell of the ladder!
By the time I had got around there, Lance (yes, Lance) was up on the balcony with him, how the hell he got up there I didn't know, his ladder was at least 20ft away. - He had shinnied up a drainpipe and got up there that way apparently - Jon was screaming in agony, he thought his leg was broken, Lance was just scratching his head with a puzzled look on his face (Lance wasn't the bright of sparks)
So I got the ladder Lance was working off and used that to climb up to the balcony.
Quite a crowd has now gathered, the cobbled court yard was filling up :-[
I stand in a way that Jon can grab hold of me to lift himself up onto my shoulders...ably assisted by Lance who grabs the injured leg to help heave him up...You should have heard the language! Once Jon had stopped screaming out in mortal agony that was! Lance actually looked affronted, his leg looked all-right to him (Jon was in shorts and his leg looked a mess from knee to groin)
Once I'd carried him down we were surrounded by do-gooders, one being a nurse, who went on to praise me, telling me I must be so strong to have lifted Jon onto my shoulders like I did ;D ;D Much to Jon's disgust, I didn't do anything, it was Jon who did that, all I did was the fireman's lift bit...I was of course going to correct her...but the moment passed 8)
Fortunately his leg wasn't broken, although with torn this and ripped that, he was still off work for a week or two.
Can you imagine the poo I'd be in if either of those two incidences happened today? Yet at the time we just got on with things...
As I said at the beginning of my...er...overly long post, when I look back on some of the things I did, I cringe inside... :-[
It been a while since I had a good waffle on here ;D
Ian (who can't sleep)
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them were the days hey ian lol plenty ov similar stories ma self
makes nice reading n even the odd smile
but yr 100% correct yes we did this n more
thought ov as part n parcel ov the job
even as much as walking ledges etc
ow we miss the old days lol ;D ;D
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;D your all bloody mad ;D
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Apparantly Lance went on to be a scaffolder. :)
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i did this when it was first put up and we had to walk on the top of it, it was pretty scary
Looks like the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in my old home town of Bradford. I cleaned the building before it was revamped.
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What is the name of your company
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I will be up in Bradford next Saturday, in Thornton, Villa Roma, Birthday.
I used to clean many buildings in and around Bradford, nice place.
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hopefully the url will be allowed but there's a couple of pics on here that have to seen to be believed.
http://safetyawarecontractor.co.uk/bad-photos.html
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:o :o :o
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its Yorkshire Window Cleaning Services, I live about a mile from the villa roma.
did you used to live on bull royd lane?
No I lived on Old Rd
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anuther escapee from suny braford ;D ;D ;D ;D
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anuther escapee from suny braford ;D ;D ;D ;D
Hi Tommy
How are you?
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i could clean both the windows without moving a foot off the rungs,hes either a numpty or its a set up
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So could I ;D
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there are loads of me floating around I'll keep an eye on here to see if any pop up. Ledge walking changing gantrees harness less, bouncing 35ft ladders from one window to another, you name it some plonker has taken pics of me doing it and stuck it on myspace/facebook. lol
thats working with safety in mind
on yr site mate up them ladders on that castle building
spelling mistakes every where on yr website too ??? ??? ???
Nothing wrong with that pic son, No risk what so ever. I've been running up and down ladders that high for so long now if it was not safe I wouldn't get on it. Makes me laugh how many people see that and say, ohh thats risky. It really grinds on me when people say ladders are unsafe.
Yes there unsafe in some circumstances in the wrong hands but if evaluated properly and user is well trained and competent then theres plenty of room for them.
Since I've gone WFP I'm so slow when I jump on my ladders I avoid them like the plague regardless.
Oh and yes site looks a mess I know ain't had enough time to sort it. Not overly bothered to much work to worry about taking on new stuff.
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chill stan lad lol ;D ;D
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Ian, I could tell some stories about the things you had me doing! ;D
I remember the first house you had me help you on, probably my first day...
The first ladder climb I did was up the three-tier to a window with no sill!
I was 25ft up, face pressed against the glass trying to squeegee, with nothing to hold on to.
I thought I was going to fall and die. :o
I seriously almost gave it up right there.
Glad I didn't, but a few weeks later you had me doing an office where the outside meant the 25ft ladder was at such an angle that it was bending about a foot or two in the middle.
I remember you saying "aluminium ladders don't gradually crack, they just snap!" Yeah cheers for that!
Then on the inside I was three floors up doing the outside of a sash window, sat on the sill with the window shut on my legs and a monsterous drop behind me! :o
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thats nowt squeaky lad that dave nearly
killed lance lol
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there are loads of me floating around I'll keep an eye on here to see if any pop up. Ledge walking changing gantrees harness less, bouncing 35ft ladders from one window to another, you name it some plonker has taken pics of me doing it and stuck it on myspace/facebook. lol
thats working with safety in mind
on yr site mate up them ladders on that castle building
spelling mistakes every where on yr website too ??? ??? ???
Nothing wrong with that pic son, No risk what so ever. I've been running up and down ladders that high for so long now if it was not safe I wouldn't get on it. Makes me laugh how many people see that and say, ohh thats risky. It really grinds on me when people say ladders are unsafe.
Yes there unsafe in some circumstances in the wrong hands but if evaluated properly and user is well trained and competent then theres plenty of room for them.
Since I've gone WFP I'm so slow when I jump on my ladders I avoid them like the plague regardless.
Oh and yes site looks a mess I know ain't had enough time to sort it. Not overly bothered to much work to worry about taking on new stuff.
im slower wfp a lot slower
n have jobs higher than yr pic on ladders i jus love the trad ;D
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lol trad rules
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stan hes not a windy hes a burglar! ;) ;D ;D ;D
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By the way, you are all supposed to be sending in Pictures for the rogues gallery :P
Seems to have turned into a right old chinwag
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Is there a problem for window cleaners going high on ladders.
The decorating side of our business we think nothing of three storey houses of ladders.
That is also included in our liability insurance with no problem.
Cheers Tony