Guide
Window washing
One pass, top to bottom, wipe the blade. Why paper towels leave streaks and a squeegee never does.
3 min read · First Ave Supply, 1587 First Avenue
Why your windows streak
Because you are using paper towels. Paper leaves lint and pushes dirt around in a film that dries as streaks. A squeegee removes the water instead of spreading it, which is why a professional does a storefront in two minutes and it looks like there is no glass there at all.
The method
- Wet the whole pane. Soapy water is fine, a few drops of dish soap in a bucket, or a glass cleaner for a small window.
- Start at the top. Pull the squeegee straight down in one pass.
- Wipe the blade on a cloth after every pass. This is the step people skip and it is the step that matters, because a dirty blade redeposits everything you just removed.
- Overlap the next pass by an inch into the clean strip.
- Wipe the bottom edge and the frame with a dry cloth.
That is it. No circles, no buffing, no newspaper.
Squeegee sizing
A 10 to 12 inch squeegee handles apartment windows. Bigger is faster on storefronts but harder to keep flat on a small pane, and a squeegee that is not flat leaves a line. The rubber is a consumable. When the edge nicks or hardens it streaks no matter what you do, so replace the rubber, not the whole tool.
Scrapers, for what cleaner will not touch
Paint specks, dried plaster, tape residue, stickers on new glass. A razor glass scraper takes all of it off in seconds. Two rules. Wet the glass first, because a dry blade scratches. And push in one direction, not back and forth.
The small mini scraper lives in a pocket. The larger one with a handle is for a whole apartment after a paint job, which is exactly when you need it and exactly when nobody has one.
Never use a razor on tempered glass with a factory coating, and never on plexiglass or acrylic.
Cleaner or no cleaner
For a normal window, soap and water beats aerosol glass cleaner and costs nothing. Aerosol cleaner is for a quick pass on a mirror or an interior pane where you do not want to carry a bucket. Ammonia based cleaners cut grease well and should not go near tinted film or between insulated panes.
Outside, in New York
The rule in New York City is that you do not sit on a windowsill to clean a window from outside. Buildings have rules about this, insurers have stronger rules, and people die doing it. Clean what you can reach from inside with a pole, and hire a licensed window washing crew for the outside of anything above the ground floor.
The pole
A 48 inch extension pole on a squeegee reaches the top of most apartment windows and the inside of a transom without a ladder. The same pole runs a roller. Buy one, use it for both.
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