Thoughts while doing storefronts

Storefront
1

  1. How do you avoid busting your knuckles on the frames at the end of a squeegee pull?

  2. It takes me about two minutes to scrub, squeegee and detail a 20"x36" window. I did 90 of them in three hours today. Is this slow or normal?

  3. My scrim gets soaked from sopping up all the water on those 2" deep sills…then it’s useless for detailing the glass? Seems like I need to buy a second scrim to use while the first one is drying out. Or am I doing something wrong?

  4. My scrim gets really dirty from wiping a lot of filthy frames…then it is simply smearing nasty water on the glass I just squeegee’d when I use it to detail Or am I doing something wrong.

  5. My scrim is getting its first hot wash tonight, and I’ll let it hang dry like the instructions said. I hope I like it better once it no longer looks and smells so bad.

  6. Maybe having a second Pulex bucket for rinsing a dirty stripwasher before dunking it into the soapy water would help. Thoughts?

2

Why use the scrim as a mop? Does that make sense?

3

  1. Eh, never really thought about it, I’ll let you know tomorrow, I don’t crack my knuckles much on frames.

  2. Slow, should take you less than a minute, per side

  3. Use your squeegee to, well, squeegee the water out of the sills

  4. Buy some huck towels from WCR, or a 10lb. Bag’o’Rags from Home Depot, no use in wasting expensive scrim on sills and frames

  5. Don’t know, don’t use scrim

  6. I think it’d be a lot of extra work. I carry around an extra gallon of water in my trunk and reload when I need it.

4

I guess from your question that it does not.

However, if you’ve ever watch Mr. Sanchez or any of the other videos online here, you’ll not that the guys, soap, squeegee, and detail. The scrim is what they’re using…at least from what I’ve seen.

5

What faster method do you use? Fanning? I’m still doing three (or more) vertical pulls depending on the width of the windows. I get less detailing that way.

  1. Use your squeegee to, well, squeegee the water out of the sills
    Agreed. It’s still a lot of water.
6

I do straight pulls from the top to the point where I can reach it without a pole, then fan the rest of the way down

7
  1. You bust your knuckles on the frames? LOL

I don’t know what a scrim is but around here a sponge in the pail is part of the window cleaners tools.

As for the rest, I’m not sure how high these windows are but if reach them without ladder i would probably grab my brush with lots of water and my squeegee. I’d walk forward splasing some water on each window and when I got 20-30 windows ahead I would head back brushing and squeegeing every window. Once I got back to my pail I’d pick up my sponge in one hand and my pail in the other and walk past all the windows I just cleaned sponging them as I go. I don’t chamois much on commercial jobs though I do look for leaks. On a window that size I’d probably use a 12 or 14 inch squeegee so I could swing it nice and cut those edges so I don’t have to chamios.

If it was really dirty though, and I had to clean all the frames all the way around the window, that would take sometime, I usually just wipe the bottom sill and I don’t use my squeegee on them (sometimes I might) because it could nick the the rubber in the squeegee. But 3 hours for 90 outside onlys 2 x 3 ft windows, right in front of you, that’s way slow but I don’t really know what was around the windows, if you had to use a step ladder or a pole etc…

If there’s two of us, a guy with a pail and a brush walks ahead brushing all the windows, and a guy follows behind with nothing but a sponge and a squeegee…
and his chamois. I don’t like those stripwashers (here we call them applicators) they dont’ scrub as well as a brush or hold as much water. I use them for pole work though, obviously.

If you want to avoid detailing as much as possible, avoid getting water near the edges of the windows especially the top but if the windows are really filthy you have to use lots of water. I might brush down the window and frame, then sponge the frame above and to the side, then squeegee the window. Most windows I do don’t get that dirty though.

8

I should have mentioned that these windows were three feet wide and two feet high and there were five of them in a vertical set. Therefore, I had to stand on a step ladder to do the top two and I did the bottom three from the ground.

9

After you have done 10,000 or them, none of it will matter.

10

i find using a WAGTAIL squeegee my knuckles are never near to the frame as the handle is several inches longer than other squeegees. i usually pull one horizontal stroke at the very top as the first move then fan from then downwards. if i cant reach the top easily i stand on a beer crate or use a pole .i cant praise my wagtail enough .

11

How strong is the tool if you use it on a daily basis? It appears to be fragile.

12

looks fragile but is not . ive been giving mine what i call “a true beasting” (6hour slog each work day ) and although i have only been cleaning 2 years it is showing no signs of wear

i cut down a 14 inch flipper to become a 13 incher flipper as this suits me best

every few months i get the urge to switch back to an original-type squeegee (out of boredom ) but usually find i clean only 1 house then quickly change back to using the Wagtail as it has the extra reach and speed like no other

13

  1. LOL - Practice practice - You can also use a different handle. They have a semi ledger handle or the handle off the visa versa.

  2. Depending on what it’s bid at. 3 hours if I’m not making $180+ it’s either underbid or yes you’re too slow. Again, you’ll get faster the more you practice.

  3. What is a scrim? I’m assuming it’s the towel you are using. I use 3 towels (surgical lint free) while I’m cleaning. One my really dirty, wet towel (which i change out several times thru the day. I use this one for all bottoms) / one for my somewhat damp towel (which becomes my wet towel when I rotate) / and one very dry towel (for edges)

  4. Refer to above (3)

  5. Oh, ok you’re using something like a shamy (sp?) - You’re going to have to ring it all day (watch out carpel tunnel) or switch over to lint free surg. towels.

  6. Hmmm. now maybe I’m mistaking the scrim. Nothing wrong with using dirty water. IMO it all comes off the window the same. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t use dirty water all week. But use the same water all day and by the end of the day it’s pretty dirty.

gl

14

Did you add a leg levelor for those sidewalks with slopes?

15

i have clip on spikes (HAILO make) fitted to my ladder these hold on with a wing nut so if the ground is sloping i lower 1 spike down a little . i imagine this works the same as leg-levellers do . Quite a few pathways on my round are made of quarry tiles and these are smooth and shiny ,but the spikes grip in the tiny gap between each tile. Quite recently i bought a LADDERMAT which is four squares of spikey rubber matting these can be arranged to be set up as a kind of step . ive used them mainly on deep gravel as they spread the load well .Gravel front gardens are popular now here and if the gravel is deep,it could be dangerous to place ladder on it

16

LEDGER… will get your digits out of the equasion… takes a little practice and a curve pole… but, you can get it done quick and knock the water off the bottom frame pretty quick. use a 6’’ to knock the water off the lower frames and get em clean. save the ‘scrim’ detailing till the end, ( unless theyre weaping ) once you get a handle on the ledger theres no need for drying the lower edge ( unless the business wants to pay for a full detail ) that should cut your time in half and save you some knuckles…

17

Just re-saw the title of this thread…

“Thoughts while doing storefronts”

I took it the wrong way.

Was about to say… Typing out what MY mind is on while doing storefronts could possibly get me banned from this forum lol

:smiley:

18

buy a ledger… i wont go to the mall without one… the 7’ and the 9’ get me thru the day…