We are often asked "why do you use water through poles and leave the windows wet?"
There are varied answers in the industry, a simple and logical approach is health and safety, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSW Act) requires employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees and to ensure that those affected by their activities are not exposed to risk, read more @ Working at height whilst window cleaning
We ensure any work at height activity to ensure that the work is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people. This includes using the right type of equipment for working at height. When planning and organising window cleaning we must lawfully avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable to do so, for example by using telescopic water fed poles or cleaning windows from the inside, safely.
Our working conditions and properties vary from location to location. Before we begin with any window cleaning service, we assess the risks involved, we consider how these variations will impact on our actions needed to control any risk, to ourselves or others..
These varied factors include:
Height – How high is the job from the ground and what is the safest method of cleaning.
Access – How can workers get safely to and from where they work at height e.g. operators must not have to climb over an edge. Consider the presence of fragile surfaces, obstructions and the proximity of overheard power lines.
Location – Buildings in busy town or city locations can present different risks to those on industrial estates and domestic properties. Consideration should be given to the time of cleaning, traffic conditions and preventing public access to areas directly below the working area to minimise the risk of them being struck by any falling object.
Weather conditions – There are procedures in place to stop work in the event of adverse weather conditions that could endanger those working at height e.g. high winds when using access equipment, thunder and lightning during a storm, extreme rain and poor visibility.
Surface – What surface will the access equipment or operator work on, Is this surface strong enough to take the weight of the workers and their equipment.
Ground – What is the ground condition under the area where access equipment might need to be set up - for example, is it sloping, muddy or uneven. The access equipment you use must be suitable for the ground conditions - stable, level and not liable to fall or collapse.
Tools/materials – What tools or materials will we need for window cleaning. How will we get them up and down safely, how will we secure tools to avoid them being accidentally dropped.
Following on from this example, we consider selecting the right equipment, protective equipment and emergency evacuation and rescue procedures, who ever said being a window cleaner was a simple task, we always will require cooperation and communication between all parties including property owners and managing agents, window cleaning contractors and sub-contractors and their workers.
Finally, the wet water and why oh why does our water make a difference.. We filter our water so there are no contaminants/dissolved solids or chemicals, this leaves pure water. Nothing in the water will leaves marks, in short we aggitated the dirt with a brush head and rinse thoroughly to ensure a spotless finish. Read more about our pure water in our other blogs..
Managed cleaning service ...Visit us @ www.shiningwindows.co.uk
