Maybe it’s the height that’s making people think this is a dangerous way to wash windows, but on a well maintained building it’s probably the easiest , safest way to do it. There’s really very little can go wrong, if the equipment is well maintained.
My girl lives in a pre-war hi-rise in Brooklyn, I’ma see if she has these hooks outside of her window.
I can’t see trusting my favorite squeegee, let alone my life to something that was screwed into a building 100+ years ago lol
[/QUOTE]I can’t see trusting my favorite squeegee, let alone my life to something that was screwed into a building 100+ years ago lol[/QUOTE]
You could probably trust the old time stuff better, then some of the junk made nowadays. I’m sure there is not a W@lm@rt tag on any of those bolts.
Because everything is so well made these days:)
Snap
Those windows didn’t need to be cleaned … did they?
When men were men and sheep were nervous
//youtu.be/M7QWYsPpQVA
OK , that last bit was a bit dodgy
I clean the building in the first photo below for close to 32 years and the windows have lugs on the out side that are condemned and will snap right off, it’s been that way for the full time I’ve been cleaning the windows there, we use to sit on the sills to clean them about 30 years ago but then they replaced all the windows with aluminum framed and the bottoms are easily removed and I’m able to reach out and clean the top plate from the inside safely ! I pretty much clean the whole building that way !
There are 4 Palladium bays down on the 3rd floor that the lugs were replaced and I’m able to step out on the ledge to clean them from the outside ! On the 1st floor there are 4 more which I tucker pole from the sidewalk.
I use to see another couple cleaners across the street in the big white tower with the small bottom doing stage work, saw them on a few buildings.
Well one day I saw one of them going into the building and we stopped and talked about which building we cleaned, I said I saw him all the time out on the stage and he ask me where from, and I said from the WAC (which is the top photo)… He told me that he cleaned the Cobb building which is the 10 story little building in the right corner of the bottom photo !
I ask him how he cleaned it, and he said he was belting it …I said the lugs on the WAC were condemn and the Cobb was 23 years older (1907 Cobb/1930 Wac)and that the lugs must be to old to use and must be condemn !
He said he’d been doing it for 6 years, no problem ! Well I said you should be careful then and be sure to check each lug before laying your weight on it, that’s done by pulling up the terminal once it’s attached to the lug by yanking it up to see if it will brake…
The fellow cleaners name was Bill Hinemen, a pretty cool guy around 33 back in 85 ! Well 6 months latter I heard on the news that a cleaner had fallen 6 floors to his death and it was Bill Hinemen on the Cobb building. If you look at the right corner of the building even with the street it was the window 6 floors above the lower roof were he fell and died on the adjacent roof .
What had happen was the belt he was wearing was the same type that Pat/Macroom had described…He was oiling it with neatsfoot oil daily, thinking he was keeping it nice, well he went out the window and one of the lugs broke and at that point the other lug should of held him from falling but the belt was overly oiled and had rotted and so it broke at the buckle and down he went head first into an air conditioning unit ! Very sad, a nice young man , married with 3 young children !
In most cases in hi-rise work you’d need to have 2 failure to have an accident of such a degree, and anything can happen to anyone , anytime, anyplace, even if you do have many years of experience ! I’ve known of a few guys who have bit the dust in such a way and I came boo koo close / knock on wood !
Working off ladders and walking on roves is even more dangerous because only one failure will send you over the deep end !
So we always need to think and move safely YAWL.
I believe his belt would of saved him if he hadn’t oiled it, and those kinds of belts will function for decades, today they build the nylon type , heavy duty. Plus he would of not fallen if they didn’t do belt work here in Seaattle because most if not all the buildings with lugs are very old and in a marine environment which will corrode the brass lugs ! NY City and Boston are both in a marine environment and if they haven’t been replaced then they should not be used .
But belt work is the raw way cleaners had cleaned windows for decades and it seems there are those still doing it as we see in the video ! Diffidently a true cleaner standing on that ledge ! If them lugs are safe I think I’d do it, plus another problem would be if the cleaner dropped his squeegee and or swab because it would kill someone on the street, they need to be strapped in !
OK Yawl remember SAFETY FIRST !!!
DangeMiester
P.S.
At the bottom is a video of me cleaning the double hung from the inside at the WAC…
bummer story Dange. You did your part.
I tried to let him know but he didn’t think he was in jeopardy ! I always try to encourage safety ! I’ve had at least 4 or 5 close calls to death. Our industry is very DANGEROUS . Most times if not all times it’s pilot error !
By safe Justin, and good luck with your biz !
Dave
Empire State Building is Belt Work
Yep it is Mark, would you be doing it ?
Dange-Ster
I would for sure, its very dangerous work for sure but I’m sure those anchors are well kept
They have them on this Nursing home we clean the windows on Its 100 years old four story
Dange , my ol mate, such a sad story about that guy falling on “the cobb building” . so who cleans it now and how do they do it? i really admire that sort of working, i would think you yourself did the belt work way back when too
you would think a belt would have 2 seperate buckles so that if 1 snapped thered be a second to save you-of course that might make it too bulky so maybe not practical,its just my thought on it
I heard on the Empire State the wind blows upwards! Alas drips go upward from your equipment as well. Do you have that problem Dange?
Hey there Karl,
No not on the building that I do from the inside…But when your doing chair or stage work that will happen pretty often !
Dange
Yo Jonny,
Hey there Bud,yeah it was very sad. But just remember falling off a ladder can put one in Hades (paradise or tatarus)(the grave).
The property owners would do it in house with professional cleaners but now contract it out to an outside company…They do it with a boatswain chair !
Actually I’ve never done belt work except for that one ledge on the 3rd floor of the WAC, so I guess I have, but not at the level the guy in the original video here !
The guy carrying his tools the way he is is just destined to drop it one of these days and it may hit someone on the ground !
Your Bud Dange
Hey Mark,
Yeah but your not doing it that way right ?
DD
