Window Cleaning Safety

Window Cleaning Safety

In Vancouver (or Burnaby, Surrey, etc.) window cleaning is excellent work. It pays well and often we have time off in the winter to go somewhere warm! However as window cleaners we know that most windows are beyond arm’s reach. Out of arm’s reach windows are cleaned two ways:

Ladder access and squeegee:

Using a ladder, we can window clean windows up to 3 floors. However, ladder work is slow, heavy and very dangerous. It is a strong man who can use a 40-foot extension ladder!

• According to the World Health Organization, the United States leads the world in ladder deaths. Each year, there are more than 164,000 emergency room-treated injuries and 300 deaths in the U.S. that are caused by falls from ladders.
• Most ladder deaths are from falls of 10 feet or less.
• Falls from ladders are the leading cause of deaths on construction sites.

In other words, us Vancouver window cleaners must get off ladders! In fact, some jurisdictions are banning ladder work and ladders altogether. High work is only accessed by scaffold or man lift. At first thought this seems extreme, but with further consideration you realize safety is paramount and this is the best way. I wish every region had these safety laws. In fact, it is a goal of Work Safe BC (British Columbia, Canada) to greatly reduce, if not eliminate ladders from the BC workplace.

There is another method of safely cleaning high reach windows…

Safely cleaning windows from the ground using a water fed pole:

In the early years, window cleaners had the Tucker Pole, made by the American Tucker company. The Tucker pole worked but was a beast. It was expensive, costing about $1200 in 1990! It was a very HEAVY pole with aluminum sections, up to 60 feet long. It had poorly designed clamps that easily pinched your fingers. It was fragile. The Tucker pole often broke from metal fatigue or was easily bent. The Tucker Pole got the job done but every window cleaner hated this heavy expensive beast.

Then in 2001 there was Gardiner Pole Systems LTD. of England. Gardiner introduced the carbon fibre water fed pole.  The carbon fibre water fed pole truly was a giant leap forward in window cleaning. The difference was primarily the new space-age material, carbon fibre. Carbon fibre is very light, very rigid and very tough. The Gardiner pole was expensive but worth every penny! Why?

• First, the Gardiner carbon fibre water fed pole was extremely light. A window cleaner could easily clean windows up to 5 floors all day without suffering extreme fatigue.
• Second, the Gardiner carbon fibre water fed pole was extremely rigid. This rigidness of carbon fibre was a game changer. A window cleaner could easily reach windows almost horizontally with ease.
• Third, carbon fibre material is also very tough and robust! A carbon fibre water fed pole can easily last over 5 years with very little maintenance. I currently have an eight year old 45’ Gardiner CF pole that is still in weekly use.

These three factors of light weight, rigidity and toughness forever changed the window cleaning world!

Window cleaners were happy, and the Gardiner carbon fibre water fed pole soon put the Tucker water fed pole company out of business.

To be continued…