Ok yet another stupid question but I have a pet hate when it comes to cleaning windows. I have seen my attemps and they are not good plus I don't do ladders! :scared:


Now I think its money well spent, paying a window cleaner, so can anyone tell me if Ontario has a simlar system as England eg a regular local window cleaner!!!!!!

Thanks
Bombards

That's something I've noticed about living in England -- people in England are obsessed with clean windows.

Never in my life have I cleaned the exterior windows of any place I've lived beyond just giving them a good spray with a garden hose. Inside, yeah a bit of vinegar and water during a spring-clean, maybe.

I've never seen a window cleaner working houses. Most houses have a mechanism allowing the windows to tip in so the dirt can be hosed on to the furniture rather than the flower beds outside. The lack of window cleaners is right up there with the lack of draining boards as a deprivation suffered by Canadians.

Thinking about this... On the west coast, window cleaners, very generally, are right up there with pawn shop owners on the sleeze-scale. Many supposed window cleaners are just B&E artists casing out jobs. Cops, in Victoria anyway, generally discourage people from hiring them though there are reputable window cleaners (I think they actually register with the cops or are 'cop approved' or something). IMO, never hire someone that comes knocking at your door.

Someone must be hiring them, as theres half a dozen listed in the yellow pages here. Ive never seen them going door to door. I wonder if its a seasonal thing... it wouldnt be top of my list of prefered occupations in the winter.

In practice I bet that most people paying to have their windows cleaned are getting them done by the maid service more than anyone else.

I get the impression its not high on the canadian "to do" list. In the 4 years I live in an appartment the windows were never done, and I cant ever remember the windows at the office getting done either.

I just use my pressurewasher and a squeegie on a stick, but my home is a raised bungalow, so I dont have to worry about the second floor.

Point taken!

However, don't know if I can live with dirty windows..... will invest in a squeegee before I leave the UK - JUST IN CASE.


Bombards

yellow pages - why didn't I think of that!

House search can be resumed ( lots of BIG windows, in many houses that are for sale)

Bombards

North America is the home of power tools. You just buy a 300hp pressure washer and you can clean all your windows while sitting on the deck sipping a cold one

We recently rented a 2,900psi washer to clean the deck. That is probably not something you would want to use for cleaning windows. Etching them, possibly.

Errrrm, isnt that way too much pressure for cleaning a deck...My crappy 1700 one has one of those rotating 2300psi nozzles, and it specifically says not to even use that on wooden decking as it will mark it.

I don't think so. The research I did suggested that 2,500 is about the minimum for proper cleaning. You do have to use the right nozzle, though. The guy at Home Depot showed us which one to use and how to spray properly (ie not chop up the deck). He also showed us which one to use if we wanted to carve our initials in the deck.

Very effective. Five years' worth of ingrained crud came off with a single pass. It was like a liquid belt sander.

I still don't quite understand why the previous owners decided to build such a large deck.

Yeah, I guess maybe the nozzle type is more important than the pressure.

Cant have too large a deck

One that takes up half the yard is probably pushing it though.

Our deck is a relatively normal size leaving perhaps 80% of the back year free. Our next door neighbours on the other hand have pretty much the exact opposite ratio of deck to grass. I don't know why they don't just go ahead and deck over the small remaining plot of grass at the back. :-)

Most of the window cleaning companies here (east side of Toronto) don't do homes they just do high rise apartment/condo buildings. The one we lived in before we got out house had a company come out twice a year (spring and fall) to clean the windows. Saw several working yesterday on another building. Very brave (or foolish) guys hanging from the roof on a harness with a bucket and a squeegee. :scared: