Tilt and turn

Hey!
I’m a rookie windows cleaner from Germany. I’ve started watching your videos looking to learn obviously but I’ve come upon a thing that weirded me out about cleaning windows outside of Germany, or rather Europe.
It seems crazy to me that you guys have to clean almost all windows from the outside come rain or shine. Screens have to be removed, ladders placed on higher stories…
Seems rather tedious to me being accustomed to tilt and turn windows everywhere. We just clean all the windows from inside the house, hardly any windows in residences are unaccessable this way. and almost all windows are these tilt and turn style, patio doors included. Theres only a handful of not moving windows at all, maybe every 10th residential job will need use of a ladder or wfp. Those are mostly used for sunrooms or ‘wintergarten’ in in our company, commercial buildings and storefronts are a different matter tho.
Anyway, I really enjoy the videos and hope to learn more.

nestnest

Wait a few years it will get worse with all the new stricter safety regulations.

New step ladders and ladders are coming. More and more beem lift use or rope access. Safety belts and such.

Or water fed pole

Ich würde Duetsche über-ingenieurwesen dafür sorgen, dass fast jedes Haus mit doppelt gekippten Fenstern ausgestattet ist. Aber ich frage mich über Häuser aus der Vorkriegszeit? Beschäftigen Sie sich in diesen Strukturen mit festem Flachglas oder Französisch Fensterscheibenglas? Oder haben Ihre Regierungsbehörden die Bauvorschriften geändert, um alle Fenster in alten und neuen Strukturen zu aktualisieren?

Hier in den USA gibt es so viele mildernde Faktoren, von Alter über Kosten bis hin zu drastisch unterschiedlichen Klimazonen, dass Fensterhersteller so viele verschiedene Optionen entwickelt haben. Hier in Florida haben wir “Plantagen-Fensterläden”, bei denen es sich um Kunststoff-Fensterläden handelt, die an der Innenseite des Hauses angebracht sind und die von vielen Installateuren in die strukturellen Rahmenlinien der Fensteröffnung eingefügt wurden. Daher können Sie das Fenster nicht mehr als 3 cm kippen .

I would credit german over-engineering for the benefit of having nearly every house with double hung tilt in windows. But I wonder about pre-war era homes? Do you deal with fixed flat glass or french pane glass in those structures? Or has your government entities changed building codes to have all of the windows updated in old and new structures?

Here in the States we have so many mitigating factors from age, to cost, to drastically differing climates, that window companies have developed so many different options. Here in Florida we have “plantation shutters” which are platic vane shutters mounted on the inside of the house that many of the installers put inside the structural frame lines of the window opening and therefore you are unable to tilt the window in more than about 3cm.

I think this goes back further than government regulation. Since the climate over here has always been kind of cold and rainy for much of the year, houses from the 19th century would have had turning windows everywhere, with double sets of them in living quarters. One set would open outward and the other inwards. So turning probably seemed obvious when double pane glass was staring to be used.
The overengineering part comes into play with the tilting part which isnt actually all that necessary, yet still very nice.
Regulation mandates double pane glass at least, often triple for new buildings and reworked units but old buildings, like the one I own which is from the 1830s, have contiuously been kept more or less up to date, with my father putting in tilt and turn double pane windows in the 70s and adding rolling shutters on the outside at the same time.
And let me tell you, you can really feel the difference in winter between single and double pane. I think Germans used to be obsessed with infrastructure and maintenance which led to this, the autobahn and a nationwide ISDN network in the early 80s.
Anyway, long story short, I really do enjoy being able to clean all a houses windows in the rain from the inside. :slight_smile:

Very interesting to hear that is the case over there! I’m in Canada and honestly love being on the outside of the home compared to the inside. I’m just not one for small talk I suppose and the home owners always seem to be nearby, plus I’m paranoid I will accidentally knock something valuable over.

I will say the ladder climbing can get old but I am definitely excited for that WFP purchase hopefully in the near future!

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