Cleaning with Pure Water

By far the most exciting new tool in our industry is Pure Water. Ok, it isn't a technology but a product. If it is coupled with a Water Fed Pole, it IS the most exciting thing to happen in our industry in a very long time.
If you think about the final rinse that a GOOD car wash gives you and couple that with a quality brush and pole, you've got the makings of Pure Water Window cleaning.
I am typically asked a couple of standard questions when I introduce the concept to clients.
1. How can you lift a pole that long and how do you control it? The older poles were pretty challenging to say the least. I still have a couple of friends that are dedicated users of them, although I am not, I suppose, man enough for that. My new poles are both made from Carbon Fibre, giving a surprising combination of strength and ease of use.
2. Do you use a squeegee? No. After the window is scrubbed and rinsed correctly, the water is left to dry on the glass. No squeegee or towels are needed. This is just as revolutionary as when the squeegee was introduced decades ago when clients were accustomed to seeing their window cleaner using a chamois (cowhide) and cloth (or 'scrim', irish linen).
3. Why use this instead of the squeegee? The finish is remarkable. We can clean the entire frame as well as the glass- removing cobwebs, etc. There is never an issue of dirty water being used too long as fresh water is constantly being sent through the system and onto the glass. The glass stays clean longer. The glass is cleaned without the use of chemicals or detergents. This means that there won't be anything left behind on the glass that will grab airborne dust and dirt. If you're interested in hearing about glass being made of sand, making it a rough surface at a microscopic level, blah blah blah, just ask me and I will regale you with all of it.
The other part of this new tool that excites me is the opportunity to take on taller work. I think nothing now of saying 'yes' to commercial or residential clients that have 4th or even 5th storey windows. In fact, we did some the other day that were a low 6th storey! In the past, we were hemmed in by the length of our ladders and strength of our character. In all the years we have been in business, it was very rare to reach the 4th floor to clean windows, let alone the heights we get to now!
Thanks for reading this. I hope it helped explain what we do a little bit. Visit our Pure Water page on our website for more information.
BTW don't get the impression that this is all we use. We have been cleaning windows for quite some time and have picked up a few things along the way. We can hand polish when necessary, squeegee others, but try to use our new toys / tools whenever feasible.

Good Day

Today was a good day. It made me happy to be a window cleaner, or rather, a window cleaning company owner operator.
I was spurred to reliving some memories that made me momentarily forget all the annoyances of business ownership these days - too many bills/ too few receipts - mind numbingly, bone jarringly stupid decisions made by management (ok, me).
I went to a home today and was having a really pleasant conversation with the home owner, a gentleman that I had never met before. We shared a hobby interest and our conversation sprang from there. I asked him what he did before he retired. Well, he played pro football for at least 2 teams, administered a well known boxer's career and then had a successful career himself at HBO. This wasn't someone that was living in a posh part of town, just a normal place where anyone would have lived happily.
I have been in the home of the Captain of the local hockey team. I have been in our Premier's home. I have been in the studio of a well known children's book illustrator. I have ridden on top of an elevator to clean the interior of a glass elevator shaft. I have leaned over the side of a building, using a tucker pole upside down to reach what was unreachable from the ground (Hmm have I ever told my wife about that one? It was never repeated).
The thing that topped them all was entering a home to find that this was the home of the man that created, wrote, directed and voiced my all time favourite tv show from when I was a kid. Hammy Hamster.
I love talking to my clients. They are captains of industry and soccer moms. Teachers and car mechanics. Brand new parents and experienced grand parents. Every one of them has a story. most are pretty cool to hear.
Tomorrow, I will make more of those ridiculously foolish decisions that have become my hallmark. Today they didn't matter in the least.

Introductions

Welcome to my brand new blog. I am going to try to write about window cleaning related topics over the coming months and maybe throw in some personal observations along the way.
I am the president of Rileys' Cleaning Services, Inc., a primarily window cleaning business with an openness to other cleaning endeavours... our website tells about some of our history and current activities.
My father, Thomas Riley, owned and operated Rileys window cleaning since he bought Ed's window cleaning from a gentleman named Ed Thompson in 1956. When I took over, I registered the name "Rileys' Window Cleaning" to denote my feeling that I wasn't in this alone - there was more than one Riley in the company, not just me.
We work throughout the GTA - Leaside, Forest Hill, Rosedale, Downtown, The Beach, East York, Riverdale, North York, Scarborough, Thornhill, Markham, Stouffville - Just hopefully not everywhere in one day :-).
We use what you might think of as traditional window cleaning equipment as well as the newest technology in the industry to take on many varied types of projects in the safest way possible.
That's it for now in this inaugural post. I hope I didn't bore you overly much.
I hope that if you are in need (or want) of window cleaning for either your home or business in the Greater Toronto Area, you will give us the opportunity to supply you with a quote.

John Riley,
Rileys' Window Cleaning
http://www.rileyswindowcleaning.com/
416 421 5758