Vinyl lettering on glass

Storefront
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Guys & Gals :slight_smile: I did a printer’s shop today and they had advertisements galore on their glass. I ended up spending twice the amount of time I accounted for but such is life. I’m still very new and very much in the learning stage so it’s all good :).

The advertisements on the outter glass were all vinyl and I squeegeed over them no problem or so I thought. When I went to detail the window I noticed drips coming from every letter and graphic. I took a dry huck towel out and wiped everything dry because it was the only thing I could think to do. Well, when I was huck drying the window’s lettering, the owner came out and asked me if I was washing his windows with a rag or if I was going to use a squeegee. I tried to explain myself but being a newb I don’t have the confidence that I should because I don’t know if what I’m doing is right.

He went back in and I continued cleaning, probably thinking I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. My question is, when you guys do glass with all the vinyl lettering on it, how do you do it?

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If the lettering holds any water along the edges after you squeegee then they need to be detailed (huck,scrim,microfiber etc…)to prevent dripping. So what you were doing was correct, if you were going crazy with the towel all over the glass then I could see the customer coming out to ask what your doing, if it was a controlled detail you should be fine.

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My experience with this is that some rubbers work best over vinyl lettering. I have found that Ettore rubber does a better job around vinyl lettering. If there is a lot of lettering, you might be best to go slow over it. And of course, huck out any drips/runs.

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Thanks guys. I thought I was on track but just wanted to make sure. I could have gone slower over the vinyl though so I’ll try that next time. The thing was, was that dang near the whole windows were badged up with vinyl from top to bottom.

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try pushing quite a bit harder with the squeegee when you go over the lettering. it will take more of the water off and save you a lot of time.

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I find the a new large Unger Microfiber is probably the best tool in this situation. One of the few times I use it.

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I use Ettore rubber as well and love it. Softer rubber is always better on vinyl lettering than harder rubber. I had some wagtail rubber, very hard, and loved it until I did a store with vinyl lettering. Can you spell DETAILING?

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Vinyl lettering and neon lighting around the inside frames do you guys ask for a written release? How much more do you charge?

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You do what you did. Squeegee over them then detail. I would be using a leather chamois though:) And if those hucks are like micro fibre towels then they are crap. I’ve never had a problem with a chamois and the microfibre thing I tried just smeared water more then absorb it.

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I always just detailed them w/ a huck or scrim. Simple.
Mike - have you ever tried a PVA towel instead of a chamois?

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I don’t even know what PVA towel is but there’s no point in fixing what ain’t broke. I just did a few houses with that micro fibre towel and it was nothing but a pain in the butt. I actually find a lot of window cleaning methods I read about on this forum to be strange even amatuerish. A good chamois costs $25, I think that’s why everyone here doesn’t use them. They’d rather load up on $2 rags and do laundry.:slight_smile:

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I’ve used a chamois and had it fall apart after a few months. I’ve used a PVA towel for a year before I switched out to a new one. The chamois was $25 and the PVA towel was $5 that savings will do a lot of laundry. Plus I use scrim as my main detail towel and they go a long way. So between the PVA towel and the scrim I don’t have much laundry in the first place.
I never found the chamois to be good for anything except cleaning up sills and ledges. I always had to do the detailing w/ a scrim or huck as a chamois just won’t get all the water off the glass.

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That is what a sponge is for, I would NEVER use a chamois for a mess like that. I think this comes from your predilection with various towels.

Then you’ve never properly used a good quality chamois.

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Maybe you could do a video showing us how a chamois can detail a window. I’ve never seen one used as a final detail tool and can’t see how that is possible. I know in the old days they used the chamois to wet clean the window and then detailed w/ scrim.

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You know what I did once make a video of my Nephew pouring a cement side walk at my place. I might be doing a couple houses tomorrow (it’s thanksgiving but we had it today… happy thanksgiving to you if you Americans celebrate on the same day as us).

I’m going to try to make a video, I don’t have a video cam, just a black berry and a cheap digital camera. I’ll see what I can do with it. I feel kind of stupid making a video though LOL.

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Hey Tony,
I cleaned windows back in the old days. Got my first storefront account back in 1976. We used a hog’s hair brush, a wooden pole. Ettore brass squeegees, a one inch safety scraper bolted onto a folded squeegee handle for pole work, a sea sponge for wiping up frames and ledges and a leather chamois to DETAIL and DRY the windows. No surgical towels back in the day.

When I started my window cleaning business up again in 2005 I bought a leather chamois in my starter kit not huck towels. It was great until I tried to use it to detail around vinyl letters. I had trouble with it on those letters. That’s when I switched to huck towels.

PS
I ran into a Fish window cleaner who was using one on vinyl letters. He was a real pro. He had the 30 inch sorbo going on and he was flying through some storefront glass. Nice guy. I got really excited and asked him how to use the chamois on vinyl. I should have know better, he couldn’t really speak English well enough to explain it to me. It’s frustrating me now just thinking about it.

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Mr. Squeegee I tried to make a video, well I did make one but I already deleted it. It was BAD, I was trying to hold the camera with one hand and do a window with the other, then I forgot what I was going to say… I think I had stage fright. I’m not making a video, not my thing.

But, I will tell you how to use a chamois.

Get a good chamois, not too thick or you can’t wring it out, not too thin or it won’t last and get’s wet too fast. Medium is nice.

Then, you saturate with water and wring it out till it’s damp. You can tell it’s perfect if you rub it on a window and you don’t get any water on the glass. It will look like you just breathed on it, a little vapor or condensation then it’s gone instantly.

I don’t test it like that, I just know, anyway, you ONLY detail the glass. Don’t use it as a sponge on the bottom sill, don’t wet the window with it. You just detail the edges and any streaks you might have. You can chamois storm windows with it but you might have to wring it out every couple storms. If you have nice windows detailing is easy and the chamois might get too dry.

The chamois won’t work if it’s too wet or too dry but it’s fairly easy to maintain and it should last an entire house even then, it only takes 30 secs to wring it out again. btw, you can saturate it in your pail of water, it doesn’t matter if there is soap in it and it seems to wring out easier if you saturate it completely then wring it out as opposed to having a slightly wet chamois and try to wring out a few drops.

At the end of the day, I’ll wash it in my sink by hand, stretch it out and hang it over my pail so it drys. You don’t want to leave a chamois wet over night it will eventually start rotting.

And, yeah they do wear out after a few months and they cost $20+ bucks but it’s fast and works and besides for a guy that does residential mostly and is home based, over head is cheap in window cleaning. All my ladders are 13 years old and good as new its the rubbers that cost.

btw, @miedfel, I’ve done probably thousands of store fronts and lots have vinyl lettering but I can’t ever remember giving it a 2nd thought. I sometimes might have to squeegee a couple times then chamois and never had a problem. It’s those metal lettering I don’t like because they nick my rubber.:wink:

Oh and mister squeegee. Around here they never use the word detail. We only say chamois. Chamois that window or you forgot to chamois that window etc. that’s how ingrained the chamois is around here.

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Great post. As I said earlier I have been using the huck towels to dry the lettering. Sometimes there are a lot of letters to detail so I fold the towel and hold it in the palm of my hand and BUFF them all dry at the same time. Can you do that with a chamois? What am I doing wrong?

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No you don’t buff with a chamois (I know you know that;)) I guess I just follow the outline of the letters, I’m not sure if buffing would be easier with a terry cloth or micro fibre because I’ve never had one with me. I do storm windows and diamond shaped windows with a chamois… that makes lettering easy. I squeegee the lettering and 15 seconds later it’s done.

I do know that normal detailing is much more difficult with a microfiber towel because I tried one out and hated it after one window. After 3-4 windows I knew for certain that nothing can be superior to the chamois. I never tried the huck or scrim or whatever… they might equal the chamois (I doubt it) but it cannot do a better job. Like for lettering, I just wouldn’t keep a towel handy just in case I came across lettering.

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Thanks for the explanation Mike. I found that the “condensation or vapor” you describe didn’t always dry w/out leaving residue when I tried detailing w/ a chamois. I’m glad you like them. I personally find it less expensive to use the PVA towel and scrim combo. That means even lower overhead.
I guess it’s all about whether we are comfortable trying new things or would rather stay old school. If you’re happy that way it probably doesn’t matter.