Gutter Cleaning this fall

We love cleaning gutters in the fall! I know it sounds corny, but i'm serious.

There is something simple about cleaning out gutters in Nashville, TN. Its the cool weather, the simple work, the Ed Sheeren on the head phones, and the beautiful colorful leaves of the fall. This is the life! If you are waiting for all the leaves to fall that time is almost here!! We have booked most of our customers for the end of December that way all the leaves will have come down by then. Enjoy the holidays!

Waking up Early

We recently had to wake up extra early to be on a job site that needed us there at 6:00. 

There is something special even indescribable a good alert feeling that comes with waking up at 4:30 and being on the job site at 6:00 am.

 However, with that wonder feeling there also comes so parts that I can describe.

 Like the extreme exhaustion that sets in on you about 10 min after waking up, or how about the wandering around looking for your shoes that are already on your feet.

But all in all, it was a very productive day!

Winter Window Washing

Washing Windows in the cold winter weather is hard work!!! If you clean glass for a living, you know what I mean. The cold wind and weather can be brutal.

Mixing isopropyl in your solution, dealing with hand freeze, and the occasional glasses fogging up.

The best is when you get a friend, or customer who peaks their head out their front door from the comfort of their cozy office or home and says "it doesn't feel that cold out, seem nice"...

And your thinking "Wow, you f^%$ing twit, it's 22 degrees and I've been out there for over 4 hours now!" so you casually  respond "yeah, not too bad, it is cold though."

Window Cleaning Ladders

There are these really awesome window cleaning ladders that Camelot Window Cleaning uses for it's ground floor step ladder work.

But unfortunately the makers Cosco, starting making the feet really cheap on them.


 So you see what happens when anyone who weighs more than a mouse sets them down and try to stand on them... the little feet are made of soft crappy rubber now, and the hollow metal pole legs, just puncture right through it.

Seriously people, stop making garbage!!!! I have to say, it's so dumb. I switched to this brand because the last step ladder brand starting doing the same thing, after one or two uses, the legs puncture right through. Such crap

Replaceable Squeegee Rubber

Replaceable squeegee rubber has gone WAY UP in price in the last two years!!

 It's almost 2 bucks for one rubber! That doesn't sound like much now, but compared to 60 cents per rubber that is a lot.

We use about 1 a day, so thats 2 dollars a day x300 working days of the year, that's $600 bucks man!


Hey, money is money, and that used to cost just over one hundred dollars to do the same work, that's a big inflation in rubber prices.

The most bang for our buck is definitely this ABC T rubber. We saved a few bucks buying a bunch of this brand over some of the others like Sorbo, or Unger.

Swamp Thing

Remember that tv show from the 80s; Swamp Thing? 

Well my customer in co-joined effort with their brilliant lawn company have officially revived or re created the environment exactly.

You should have seen it... imagine trying to wade through that little wonder land while window cleaning. The whole day was slosh slosh, splash, splash, sink hole, etc... Wow people.
In spite of all that, the job went very well. It was a small home with about 25 single hung windows. I had to take my shoes on and off throughout the day to prevent mud being tracked in the house. We usally use the little blue booties that go over our shoes to avoid dragging any dirt or leaves in the customer's home.

Gutter Cleaning and Beautiful Weather Nashville

The best days of the year for me are days like today, when the sun is shining, the temp is a cool 65 and 0% chance of rain. Man, that's the best.

We spent the day cleaning gutters on a few homes in the Nashville, and Brentwood areas of TN.

Gutter Cleaning season hasn't fully come yet, but we had a few customers that did not have theirs serviced at all last year, so to prevent water damage over the next few months during rainy season, it was a smart decision to have them cleaned out now, and again when all the leaves come down at the end of fall.

The leaves should fall by the end of next month, if not by early December. Last year they didn't all come down until mid December, that was weird though.

Window Cleaning French Window Panes

If you are a window washer, or have them, then you know the trouble that it can be to wet and squeegee french pane windows.

Don't get me wrong, they look beautiful! But are almost twice the cost to have cleaned, and take almost twice as long a conventional double hungs.

We start at the top of each window and clean the panes from top to bottom. We use our pro solution and squeegee each pane, then towel the edges dry. If you straight pull each one, then you will want to triple pull or wipe the top edge of each pane before you start window washing. We fan each one most of the time because its actually faster and higher quality if you can pull it off.

Waiting for Gear

If you clean glass, you know the feeling of waiting for window cleaning gear to come in the mail. It has only been a couple days from the time that I placed my order but I still have that Christmas morning feeling of opening a present! It's silly because its just some razors and small gear, but soon I will be ordering a screen cleaning machine.

Washing Windows with Sorbo Products

We use almost exclusively Sorbo products. The durability of their channels and the results they bring to the glass are outstanding! I could complain about the rubber prices though, but ill save that for another post.

If you use the fanning method of window cleaning, or what is sometimes called the "S" method, then Sorbo squeegees are for you. They glide just a little bit better and leave less streaks and phantom streaks when fanning. I have tried many channel and handle brands Ettori, Unger, etc... and use some of their squeegees for special purposes, like Unger's 0-degree angel handle is great for reaching straight out over bushes or small roofs from a ladder. We also use Wagtail from time to time, but don't prefer them.

Window Cleaning In The Rain

Giving Window Cleaning quotes in the rain is no fun. As you can guess Rain days are perfect for doing estimates and scheduling customers.

We always schedule estimate route days but sometimes it just works out great to take a "rain day" and get some of them done; especially the long distance ones because most of the time is driving anyway.

The only problem with it all is trying to write out the forms while keeping them semi dry.
Many times have I re-re wrote estimates before giving them to the customer. Ive always wanted to bring an umbrella or make a better "rain proof" estimate, window cleaning quote system, but have never taken the time yet.

Construction Window Cleaning in Nashville

We have been doing a lot of construction window cleaning lately. Over the years we have become very fast and efficient at getting everything off of the glass while spending less than 10 minutes on each window.

The Razors we use are the Unger ErgoTec Window Cleaning Razor. These have two major benefits that we use often. Unger's ErgoTec Razor will hook on a pole end with the locking clip. The blades are less to buy than other company's blades.

This the best Scraper we have found over the years. We have tried various razor holders from window washing sites and home depot etc.

They work fine for a while, but have down sides;
Most razors won't hook on a pole end, and that in it self is great when working on commercial accounts because now you won't have to take a ladder out to scrape one or two windows, put it back and 20 minutes later go to the next window.

The other problem is the blade replacement cost of most razors is almost double the cost of Unger's.

Water Fed Pole Systems | Window Cleaning

As a company we are thinking of getting into Water Fed Systems, for commercial window cleaning on small to medium sized buildings.

We know water fed can increase speed dramatically when cleaning strip malls or store front routes. It also reduces risk on multistory buildings because the window cleaners won't have to be on ladders. Another upside to customers is the possible price reduction.

    The major down side to water fed window washing is the need for large amounts of water. This can be handled two ways; on board water tanks that are mounted in the trucks, or long hoses hooking up to the customers water supply. Of course most of us would prefer the later, but it's hard to find available water on a lot of the storefronts now days.

Window Washing Nashville TN

I was in Nashville Washing Windows as usual last week, and I found and cleaned the largest window screen I have ever seen. It was 5x6 feet!!

Now that's a screen!!! Needless to say we can't use our screen cleaning machine on anything that size. We cleaned it with soap and water and hosed it off. Washing windows is always fun because every day it's a slightly new adventure.

Window Cleaning - Ladder Legs

If you use ladders or have people that do, you should seriously think about investing in these window cleaning ladder leg levelers. These are the kind that auto-lock when you set them down. We use them on all of our high up extension ladders. For around 100 bucks you cant go wrong with a little extra safety. Never put a rock, brick, stick, or any other randomly discovered item within arms reach to "prop up" your ladder leg! Its just stupid guys. no, really it is. Our company Camelot Window Cleaning 5708B Maxon Ave. Nashville, TN 37209 uses them every day, they are awesome!