Equipment
Your equipment is every bit as important as the window/glass cleaner you choose. It’s where most people go wrong as they believe that a bag of paper towels, rags, and – god forbid – newspaper works. Some even use a squeegee which to us and most companies “in the know” are primarily used for outside work and/or scaffolding window cleaning which this blog doesn’t cover.
- 8′ – 12′ Adjustable pole – graphite composite or aluminum alloy – The right pole that is stiff and light enough to use fully extended saves you from getting on a ladder everytime
- 10″ aluminum channel glass pad head – do a lookup on Google to find this. This is where the microfiber glass pad fits on and firmly locks onto the glass even when pushing from several feet below
- 12″ microfiber glass pads – Slight cushion to protect glass and the ability to cling to glass magically when cleaning.
- Smooth microfiber glass rags – same used in a car detailing. Use them to touch up after – can even be attached to glass pad head
You shouldn’t be hand wiping ANYTHING if you are equipped correctly. Oh yeah – for those who say “I prefer to hand clean” what they are really saying is “I suck at cleaning glass & windows. Watch me work slowly and leave streaks all over the place.”
Cleaning Products
It’s amazing how many glass cleaning products our company has gone through. In the past choosing to spend 2-4x more on commercial glass cleaner since it “must” be better than Windex. Guess we all make mistakes.
For 95% of glass cleaning (and mirror) Windex original is the best – skip the ammonia because it will make streaking more likely and isn’t safe on tinted glass or many mirrors.
If you have hard water issues on glass such as glass shower doors or patio doors/etc than use a mild acid on it first (like barkeepers friend or Q&A Foamy – let it sit than rinse it off and finish with normal window cleaning using Windex.
