You too can become an Independent Field Tech Consultant! Just subscribe to the Glass Smart Insider News. A Field Tech is a window cleaning Sherlock Holmes. Some of the problems such an individual must figure out involve stains, scratches, etched surfaces, plastic glazing damage, mylar film problems, coated glass damage, and glass surface science. Let me tell you a story. This first one I call, “The House on the Hill”. I have many stories to tell.
Once upon a time in a town far far away from most of you there was a multi-million dollar house at the top of a rather short hill. It was white and in need of a paint job. To prep it for the work a power wash company was called in to clean the exterior. Which they did using a product called Red Devil. It fulfilled it’s name. Based on sodium metasilicate and sodium carbonate it left a white deposit on 1974 little pains of glass. These were clustered windows. Six pains, 12 pains, 15 pains per window. All IG units. So if only 3 little pains were damaged the entire window would have to be replaced. The 1974 little panes that were damaged were spread throughout the entire house. Such that every window would have had to be replaced. At a cost of eighty thousand USD. It was the power wash companies insurance that was paying the bill. So they were looking for a solution. I came in, figured out what had happened, how it happened, and how to completely remove the stain without leaving scratches. As it turned out I won the job too. So I charged 2,000 bux to clean all of the windows in and out. This was necessary to determine precisely which windows/little panes needed to be cleared of the stain in order to price the restoration. Then I charged 10,000 to do the restoration. My solution was a bit novel. I ended up using a diamond compound syringe and Bounty paper towels. This completely cleared the stain and even removed half of the scratches from previous attempts. (A machine and a small felt pad using the same compound just created more scratches. Cerium slurries with or without a rotary machine had no effect.) The insurance rep was standing in the driveway waiting for me with a check for a quarter of the total before I cleaned the first window.
I have more stories to tell. One of my favorites has to do with plastic/acrylic/lexan glazing and the wrong chemicals coupled with physical stress from either temperature, vibration, force, or radiation.
Next time on chronicles of a field tech consultant.
Henry
Write to me at [email protected] or respond here.
