What is everyone using on storefront windows that are in the sun? We have 2 different solutions we use and they dry faster than we can squeegee. Any tips or tricks.
We use dawn. Technique is what really helps. I think @SteveO just made a video about this.
What specifically is giving you a hard time ?
Pole work or hand tools?
We initially tried the pole with mop and squeegee. As we made it to the other side of the window it was dry. So we then tried to do a straight pull as I was scrubbing. It would dry as we pulled down and looked horrible. Ended up doing by hand and doing small parts at a time
Depending on the size of the pane and where the divider bar is located, if any, is what determines the amount of glass I soap before running the squeegee. I run into excessively hot glass in Florida and what I have found to work is using a very wet Fliq pad on an 18" channel mounted on a swivel handle and using a pole except for when it is below 5 ft. I will soap about 24" vertical area the entire width of the pane. I then start with the channel in the full vertical alignment as if I were to do a horizontal straight pull. If I am starting in the middle of the pane, I will give about a 2" overlap along the top edge of soaped area. As I am moving across the glass to the opposite frame, I will drop the top corner of the channel to be in the flat horizontal alignment as I come to the edge and do about a 16" straight pull down. I will then move the squeegee back across the glass while maintaining the horizontal alignment with a slight raise in the leading edge corner. This will deposit some of the collected water back onto the window to provide a slip surface for the second, lower pass. As I am moving the channel back to the originating point, I am going to raise the leading corner to be roughly 2" above the mid-glass starting point to collect the initial streaks of water from the set off pull. Keeping the channel oriented mostly horizontal from this point on, I will sweep the leading corner down along the frame edge to collect the water and begin my second pass by while again raising the leading edge about 1-2" above the deposited water trail from the first pass and collecting the remaining “fresh” soap. I will then continue this process, down the height of the pane with each subsequent soaping having a slight overlap of the surface I just cleaned to ensure I do not leave an evaporated line of soap in the middle of the pane. Continue this process until you are within arms reach with your mop and squeegee, remove the pole and continue the pattern until you are able to close out on either the bottom or lower side rail.
Each pass of 24" should be able to be completed within 20 seconds from soaping to squeegee as long as you have a Fliq pad. Keep it super wet between passes which will help cool down the surface of the lower section of the pane as well as provide more water to evaporate off before it dries completely. The really nice thing about the Fliq pads is if you have a skip in the squeegee rubber or miss a trail as you are fanning, you can just flip the mop surface back over and re-wet, flip it again and keep going and it takes less than 3 seconds.
Here is a link to another @SteveO video from back in 2019 of him using the Fliq pad on high window cleanings. The squeegeeing technique is different than what I am describing, but you can see the use of the Fliq to re-wet the surface without having to drop the pole and switch tools.
Trad hot glass cleaning is all about repetition to develop consistent efficient movement which will lead to speed while maintaining quality results. Another option is to develop the two handed technique for when it is within arms reach, which you can also extend by using much wider mops and channels. @SteveO did a video on using the Sorbo Eliminator back in August. These things come in widths all the way up to 72"! Talk about single pass straight pulls!
Eventually, if your route allows for it, you can invest in a WFP system which will eliminate the stress of rushing to get all the water off before it dries, but it is not the answer for every location as water may not be available or running a hose line may pose a tripping liability issue for foot traffic.
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Thanks so much for the info. I’ve been doing this for 5 years now and I’m finally starting to get commercial jobs. We mainly focused on residential. Need to get some better equipment. Any favorites that I absolutely should get and stuff I should stay away from?
Honestly, I am pretty much in the same boat as you. I am starting my 6th year as a window cleaner, 3rd year in business on my own and 95% of my window cleanings are on residential homes in retirement communities. When I do have a commercial job, I typically just use my WFP on the exterior and trad window clean on the interior, unless it is a multi level interior where I will use an interior WFP system.
My set up is a little different though, as I work from a trailer that has a pressure washer and 200 gallon tank mounted to it, so I can haul around my own water and I use a 12v pump to push water through the RO and DI filters and I have a reel with 200ft of 3/8" hose with quick connects. So for me to do a strip mall with no water supply is possible without having to move all of my equipment multiple times, but the investment it took to get my equipment to do this was fairly high.
I will defer to guys like @TheWindowCleanse @SteveO @Luke who have done multiple equipment reviews and use all sorts of combinations to get what they feel is the most efficient and highest quality results.
When I am doing a WFP cleaning, I use a XERO pure system (single RO, not the X2), an 18" Tucker Hybrid Alpha Brush with an over the top rinse bar. I have a no longer available Northern eLite 50’ carbon fiber pole, which I usually just use the first two or three sections out of (I purchased this all before the Xero Poles were released). What I did do though was I took a Xero Pole Trad Adapter with a Moerman tip, which has a smaller carbon fiber post as the top section of the Xero Poles are narrower than the Nothern eLite, and I took some carbon fiber tape and layered a couple wraps around until it was wide enough to engage the first lock. If I ever switch to the Xero Pole, the bottom 4 inches of the adapter will still fit into the Xero Pole’s gap and lock in without a problem.
I want to preface this next item as being practical, yet not necessary. I have a Dragonfly 4 interior waterfed pole system. No one sells these in the US. I had to order it from the UK and wait 3 weeks for it to get here. The only reason I even purchased it was one major commercial client has a LEEDS Platinum Building and they do not want any soaps or solvents used on the property that are not 100% bio friendly and yada yada yada. I tried to convince them that Dawn soap was perfectly friendly to the environment, they use it to clean up oil spills etc., but they also didn’t want water sitting or dripping off of the interior window ledges. Moreover, they had desk cubicles that were permanently fixed to the floor which prevented the use of a lift to get access to the glass that was 25’ off the ground. So after some online research I found the Dragonfly which is essentially a backpack with a water bladder and pump, a remote on a lanyard, and a misting sprayer mounted to a microfiber pad holder instead of a WFP brush. You mist the glass with pure water and scrub it with the microfiber pad.
The rest of my commercial interiors I just use my normal residential tools, as it is so infrequent at this point, I haven’t seen the need to purchase tools specifically for commercial work. I use the Moerman Excelerator 2.0 handle and an 18" Liquidator channel with a Fliq pad and Facelift Red Razrblade rubber.