I don’t know why, but I seem to have a hard time finding what I’m looking for when I search.
I tried searching “101” and “pole” and “pole work”.
I’m trying to find videos, if there are any of people using the typical poles (NOT the WFP) just an 8ft pole that I would attatch a squeegee and or a mop on the end of it, to be able to clean a little higher without using a ladder. I’m going out to practice some Pole Work tomorrow, and would really like to see it done on videos here in the forum. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen videos about pole work around on this forum but I can’t find them anywhere.
Is there any different technique with using poles? (I understand practice practice practice, I know that part) but I would rather practice with knowledge and technique if there is any.
John, the Z method is obviously for hand work, although you can use a loose form of it effectively on transom type windows. It’s not the easiest to do perfectly, but if you keep practicing carefully, you can do well with it.
The guy in the Youtube video is Sorbo Samuelsson, known well in the WC industry.
What specific questions do you have about pole work.
I haven’t practiced pole work hardly at all yet, but I am getting tired of going up and down ladders though for something a pole could easily reach. My goal for this post was simply to find some helpful videos to give me a crash course on pole-work.
The only question I have at this point in time (not having any practice) is in that Z-method video, Sorbo says he always uses a pole? What are the advantages/disadvantages to this?
After watching a bunch of these videos, and practicing tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll have more questions.
The best video series I have seen for this is the unger tutorial series found at the link below. Its a 4 part video. I am not sure which video it is but one of them is specifically aimed at pole work. Unger Window Cleaning-Tutorial 2-Cleaning techniques-EN - YouTube
John, the main thing with pole or ground work is to loosen all the foreign matter on the glass and get it off as cleanly as possible. When using a pole, for sure you want to leave as few streaks as possible, since you’ll need the pole with a towel to remove them. The rubber in the channel needs to be free of dirt with each pass. You don’t necessarily need to wipe it each time with a rag or sponge. If there’s a lot of dirt in the suspended liquid, just tap the squeegee on the glass (about 90% wet, 10% dry area). At least that’s how I do it.
Just to clarify, you are telling me that when it is time for me to tap the squeegee on the glass to remove the dirt/water from the squeegee, that I should tap in an area so that my squeegee hits the window where 10% of the squeegee hits the cleaned glass and 90% of the squeegee hits the un-cleaned glass??? I did see some videos where people tapped, but now I’m forgetting where they tapped. Would it be okay to tap on an un-cleaned window? That’d probably just put more dirt on the squeegee. What about the option of pulling it down to my other hand and hitting/tapping the back side of my squeegee with my hand? (I’m not doubting your advice, just thinking out loud).
