hello have been lurking for a bit " yes i am a newbie" i have learned alot of things to do and not to do saving myself some headaches and future headaches thanks to you all. anyway i digress, had a residence yesterday where most of the windows were tempered and over a third had pine sap and brown stain dots all over the windows was unable to make them as clean as the rest which didn’t have sap and stain on them. i will tell you what was performed ( cleaned with water w/dawn and scrubbed with brass wool 4 times to no avail ) dont get me wrong they looked 10 times better than when started and homeowner was happy but i was not. please some advice on chemicles or tools to use thanks in advance
First, Welcome!
You’ll need two more tools - a 6" razor or broadknife for scrapng and a Tempered glass waiver along w/ the proper education which can be found here - www.windowcleaner.com - Fabricating Debris
I haven’t yet encountered bad amounts of tree sap, but if you can’t use a razor (or don’t want to) perhaps some chemicals would do the trick - maybe Safe Restore? Although honestly - I would probably pull out a can of Goof Off, Oops, or some acetone/laq. thinner. I used those a lot in my car cleaning days. Although I haven’t used all of those window cleaning homes.
Acetone/laquer thinner can harm the IG seals.
what is a IG SEAL?
Insulated glass. If the chemical gets past the edge seal of the window and sits in the bottom of the frame it will eat the butyl caulking they use to seal the two glass panes together in the metal banding.
Does that make sense?
Way to go Tony!! I 2nd your recommendation.
May want to include a small 1" razor as well for those quick little touch-ups.
I would probably say use the small razor on the whole glass. Anyone who is used to removing fresh pine sap like me knows that the blade just becomes useless after a few swipes as it gunks up. Take at least 2 blades for each 6’x6’ pane. And to save time, buy a load of blade holders so you aren’t messing around at the job site & if you have to change them - do them all at once. Charge at least 4 times the rate & remember that waiver!
I haven’t tried it, but what about Oil Flo?
Nah, it won’t do a thing on the fresh stuff. Trouble is, even the hardened stuff is sometimes soft like honey in the middle & you end up smudging it everywhere.
cleaning tree sap and stain off tempered glass
Yikes!
1" blades, steady hand and patience. Oh and a waiver:)
