[paul saunders]

Here's a question for you all.

If youv'e done this sort of thing before, and you never had WFP would you still be doing this sort of thing.

Please answer truthfully.

[alan andrewswestsi]

got a new customer last month who got fed up with his last cleaner breaking his tiles , cleaned it this month and he,d replaced all the brocken ones at a cost of £650.00 , LONG LIVE THE POLE

[Ian_Giles]

Here's a question for you all.

If youv'e done this sort of thing before, and you never had WFP would you still be doing this sort of thing.

Please answer truthfully.

Mmmm....truthful answer is yes and no, in some cases I would still be walking on sloping roof's, but equally there would also be many occasions when I would no longer do so, I'd use extension poles and trad equipment instead, and inform the customer that it is not safe to do so any other way.
would also have to tell them that those particular windows would not be cleaned to the same standard as windows I could get to without the use of poles.

Ian

[Kev R]

I had a fall and broke my ankle. 3 months off. I sold my round and stopped window cleaning.    A few years when wfp started getting popular I decided to buy a system and start back window cleaning.  I will climb a ladder for access but won't work from one anymore. If wfp stopped tomorrow so would I.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

Can't say I've ever climbed on a roof that steep but I did used to do a few with a shallower angle till I broke my ankle. After I got back to work I found the restricted movement in my ankle caused problems when getting back off the roofs and onto my ladder so I packed it in and used an ext'n pole with trad tools till I went WFP this year.

[Londoner]

Years ago I saw a young kid cleaning windows on a block of flats exactly the same way as the bloke in the picture but two stories up. lt literally make me feel ill watching him. It was in the days before I had a camera phone, I wish I had been able to take a picture.

The worst bit was when he had done the window he walked backwards down the roof and had to hook the unsupported ladder with his foot. That was the bit I just couldn't watch.

[Wayne Thomas]

I will climb a ladder for access but won't work from one anymore. If wfp stopped tomorrow so would I.

Same here. If water company banned us from using WFP I would pack in work and go and sign on the dole and have a long vacation until the ban was lifted.

[Londoner]

Its amazing how quickly you become ladder shy once you stop using them.

[Wayne Thomas]

Its amazing how quickly you become ladder shy once you stop using them.

Vince, I'm not ladder shy, I'm not scared of heights. I love abseiling down cliffs forwards or backwards.
If water companies banned WFP use I would be forced to sign on the dole because as I suffer from chronic arthritus I would have no choice but to give up work because it is impossible for me to go more than one day using a squeegie without flaring my joints up. I'm not a lazy person, but if a ban came in to force, I would be forced to sign on the dole through no choice of my own because of health not safety issues.

[M & C Window Cleaning]

Arthritis is a funny thing. It's a bit like back pain. For some the excersise helps it and for others it doesn't. I've got a mixture of both. The back is helped by the excersise but the arthritic knee is fine as long as I'm not on a ladder. I was having a lot of pain in the knee before I went WFP which has since settled right down. I seriously don't want to go back to using ladders. I still use them for access to flat roofs and a handfull of flats but I can tell the differnce in my knee immediately.

[Ian Lancaster]

I used to do lots of these chalet bungalows from a ladder.  There's a simple way to vastly improve the stability of the ladder: look at the picture, the ladder is long enough to reach the top of the dormer window, so the rubber point should be set on the wood frame above the window.  The foot of the ladder can be set so that the styles don't touch the guttering without it being at too shallow an angle.  When the man climbs up he will be within reach of the glass without having to overstretch, and no danger of sliding down the roof.

Cheers,

Ian