I came across a weird storm the other day while working. I’m lucky to not have many storms in my area so admittedly my experience is a little lacking with them, which is why I wanted to see what yall thought.
The small panels on the outsides easily removed to be cleaned however the large panels in the middle were fixed/secured and I could only clean the inner and outer most glass surfaces on the panes. I tried to use my pole to get inside but the angle made it impossible to get farther than a few inches. The opening wasn’t even wide enough for my hand to fit through not even holding a scrubber or squeegee. Is there any way to clean the inside surfaces of each of these middle panes? Or is this just bad design?
The exterior pane doesn’t have a dozen, or so, screws with clips holding it in? Maybe it’s designed to come out by lifting?
If you could remove it I would have two men with suction cups and sturdy ladders walk it down and charge another couple hundred for the risk (or don’t risk it).
If they are both fixed then I am all ears on how you could clean it. I have no clue.
That was my first thought. And it appears to be ground floor, judging by the position of the car outside.
I have one house like that, where I have to remove two vertical reinforcing straps of aluminum that hold the pane in place, and then it lifts out of the frame like a standard sliding window.
There was an identical floor one floor up. It seemed to have a fixed frame around the pane but perhaps if I had looked closer there may have been clips on the outside pane.
Looking back I may pass on a job if I saw these windows again, or just explain the situation to the customer. This jobs customer in particular was fine with it because the before was so much worse than the results but it sure made my OCD flair up haha
If the window is designed to lift up so the bottom edge can clear the sill and be removed then there’s a good chance there are stoppers/keepers along the top edge that keeps the window from being removed unless they are first removed or the window is moved to clear them. Hard to say without being there to inspect it, but most likely there is a way to remove the window unless the homeowner did something to make it ‘permanent’ thinking they could seal it. Doesn’t look to be the case. Cupping the glass that should come out might help if the tracks are just so dirty that it’s stuck in place by years of dirt. All the same, I’d check the top frame for keepers first. Could also be something screwed to the side of the frame that keeps the window from being lifted up and removed.
