Hi everybody. I need info on pull down marks left by the squeegee.The windows appear to be clean except when the sun hits directly on the window there are all these pull down marks. I can’t charge people good money for unclean windows. I need to suspend my window cleaning practice until I remedy the situation. I use dawn dish soap with plenty of soap on the window I can see the soap. I use a 16" brass etoree squeege the cheap one. Is this an indication to replace the rubber Would anybody care to recamend a good squeegee. I squeegee from top to bottom. I’ve tried cutting in the top edge with a towel but it seems to make it worse. There’s a lot more to this window cleaning then I would have imagined. I think it’s time to get some training from someone who knows. I live in Shoreline, Wa 10 miles north of Seattle. My E-mail is [email protected].
You may be using to much soap and you may need a new rubber
2013 World Series Champion
Boston Red Sox
There’s a lot of problems that could cause this…
1- not even dry space, I like about 1/2 inch that I cut in with the edge of my blade. Then I dry my squeegee with my sponge and do the pull on the pane.
2- bad rubber, I use a new rubber for my main 12" squeegee for every home (change it first thing in the morning, replace/flip over/cut as needed)
3- you might be using too much soap and not enough water causing the soap residue to dry before you can squeegee it off the glass. I use GG4/Ecover, no residue with great glide and the best results I’ve ever had from soap.
Or your problem could be a combination of these problems as well. You should keep practicing before you step into the residential game, it’s one thing to leave a spot on a storefront… But a home is where you really need to have everything perfect.
Get on YouTube and watch every video by “POLZNBLADES” and “Mark Henderson” he is also in some great Unger training videos that you could benefit from as well.
Hope that helps
Mike Radzik
Pro Window Cleaning
Central Massachusetts
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Thanks hunterest. I’ll follow up on all you suggestions. I have a lot or experimenting to do.
Humm, I think you’ve got too much soap.
Try this procedure:
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Just a quick squirt (1 second maybe) of dawn in 3 gallons of water. It’s always easier to ADD soap than to take it out.
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Mop the glass but not the top 1-2".
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Squeegee from left to right.
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Angle your squeegee: the right side of your squeegee about 1-2" higher than the left. This pushes the water from the left side of the window to the right. It helps prevent pull lines.
4a. When you go to make the next pull turn your squeegee to the right (rubber facing left) this keeps the water on the right edge of your squeegee.
- You can wrap your towel around the end of your pole and towel the top sill in case of drips.
Hints:
Check your rubber and change as needed. A good indication that it needs changing are lines in the middle or it seems to take effort to pull. A good rubber will float over the glass.
I don’t dry my squeegee between pulls. It slows me down.
If you bump the top sill, do 3 quick pulls (first pull about 4", second pull 3", third pull 1") before doing the real pull. This helps pull some of the water out of the top sill as well as sort of drying off your squeegee. You can use this same procedure to do horizontal pulls and get under blinds but you’ll still need to towel the edge where you started.
cringe
I got to agree with J here. Did a job today, held back a scosh from the top and had some scumy gunky crap hanging on. It had to have some blade work and so the whole window, then some extra detailing. Every job is different. Some times you just have to deal with drips from the top edge, cause you got to clean the whole glass.
Yup, every job is different. If the top sill is jacked, then yeah, I mop it all the way to the top. But for normal cleans, saving that top 1-2" will save you a lot of time and drips. Your squeegee can pick up any dirt in that area.
If I have to mop all the way up, then I’ll do a horizontal pull or a vertical pull slide thing that is way too hard to describe via text. Maybe I’ll make a video…
But the randooo’s request was for general drip downs and this is one technique he can try.
However, I never dry off my squeegee. I will wipe my squeegee on my mop to remove hair or dirt or soap suds when I have too much soap, but never dry it off.
I agree with these two guys, I see post’s all the time saying " … just leave the top 1-2" dry…" I just can’t. To each’s own. If it drips touch it up.
It works with my ocd but as long as the glass is clean it’s all good.
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If we’re talking storefront glass these techniques work, I would never do this on a residential job.
Mike Radzik
Pro Window Cleaning
Central Massachusetts
Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource
If your cleaning a weekly job ( except during pollen season)them yes your good with this, but anything else every square in needs to be wet an scrubbed then carve that window like a pro 
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To be clear, I didn’t mean to say or suggest that you leave any glass uncleaned. I’m sure as later posts state that your method works well on store front maintenance cleans.
Sorry for any confusion.
id wager your problems are due to a crappy rubber . its suprizing how many brand new rubbers are crap right out of the box . dont bother flipping over as if crap on one side its crap all over . try a few diffrent brands until you come across one that is good is my tip
This
Eh, it’s just the technique that I learned and I use it on all route and even in residential. The squeegee by itself will take a lot of stuff off and it has the added benefit of not getting the top sill soaking wet. When the top sill gets wet you have to towel it which costs you time. And as has been proven via spurious quantum mechanics time is money (for t>0 within non-asymtotic systems).
The exclusions do apply: a really jacked up window with dirty top sill and residential to get all the film off the inside.
But I’m always open to learning new stuff: so when you mop the window all the way up, how do you towel all that water off? Note: I assumed the OP was asking about pole work.
I guess the thought of a wet top sill gets my ocd flaring more than dry squeegeeing that 1". 
Although… I have been ruminating on a new tool because of this thread. When I nail it down and prototype it, I’ll post more.
It works on all cleans. And no worries, I’m not into the whole flame war thing. We all got our preferred techniques and it’s all good.
Basically this all comes down to preference. I was thinking about what Al White used to say “Knock yourself a pro slick. That gray matter backlot perform us down man. I take TCB’n man.”
And it’s true. As window cleaners, we tend to over-think things when we should just be TCB’n (takin care of bidness).
Which got me to thinking about the nature of causality when applied to window cleaning. As an efficient cause, the window cleaner executes the final cause of the cleaning via the instrumental cause (squeegee’s and mops) following the formal cause of cleaning. The formal cause can be argued because techniques vary from efficient cause to efficient cause in pursuit of that exemplar cause (if we can really call it that when we’re talking about a clean window).
Indeed Fredrick Neitchze pointed out in his Parable that should a objective moral standard not exist (which can only arguably and naturally exist within a Theistic worldview for anything else would be truly subjective) we would have to create an objective moral standard by which to atone and govern our lives.
But can an objective standard really be applied to window cleaning? I don’t really think so in that each efficient cause considers a job to be complete to his or her own standard. Each client also has a subjective standard of what clean really is.
To further complicate the matter is the nature of time. I argue that it is a physical property affected by energy, mass, and the amount of money being considered for a specific job. Indeed, objective ideals can quickly become a subjective work dependent on expectations and the amount agree upon.
Lastly, it was the great Dr. Andre Young who said it best:
“I’m droppin’ flava, my behaviour is heriditery,
But my technique is very necessary.”
great little tip for doing repeat pole work on glass that stays relatively clean.
if glass is at eye level i mop to the top and spend the extra second towel detailing.
Depends on the window, but on many of them you can wet up the whole windows without towel drying a dry edge if you are using a pickle/slayer/smurfy channel. I have switched over to these wide channles for residentai (with the exception of the smaller french panes). Saves tons of time. A 14" channel seems to be about standard for me. With the solution I use, I can wet up the whole window and the solution will start to contract enough by the time I get my squeegee up there to leave enough of a space to whack the solution over with no streaking. Use too much soap, or soap with glycerin in it and you will have to create a dry edge.
Even emulsion can be your friend cleaning large panes but your enemy if you hate detailing.
Another possible cause is the angle of the rubber on the glass. This image is from screen printing, but the principle is the same. The magic spot is roughly 45 degrees. Pressing too hard changes the angle. Soap, quality of the rubber and practice are all factors as well.
Change one thing at a time, until you find the cause.
When doing stick work You need to get as close as possable without smacking the tops I never really put a measuring stick to see how close to the top I am it seems to be fully wet in .I usually never when I’m doing route work have to rag my tops . If I have to it takes minimal time .
Wetting in to me is more important than pulling
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