Powered access – a clear winner for window cleaning?
February 1st 2005

Problems with maintenance for permanently installed cradles on large buildings and working at height regulations restricting the use of ladders for smaller buildings,Nationwide says it is now time to look at powered access platforms

Window cleaning is an essentially low-tech business.Not since the invention of the squeegee has the sector experienced anything that can be called technical innovation – unless you count Pilkington’s ‘self-cleaning’glass, which in any case only reduces rather than eliminates the need for proper cleaning.

The main technical challenge for window cleaners over the past 100 years is probably the fact that buildings have become higher and that the proportion of glass in the façade has increased to almost 100 per cent in some buildings.

Reaching all this glass in order to clean it is a real logistical challenge.

All high-rise blocks therefore make some provision for window cleaners to access the whole outer surface of the building. Suspended cradles permanently installed on the roof are a common sight on multi-storey office blocks.

But below about seven storeys in height, this arrangement becomes uneconomical. Low rise buildings are still cleaned by contractors using ladders, but only the most foolhardy would attempt to clean windows at fourth-floor level using this method.

In fact, new regulations on work at height mean that ladders are now frowned upon and safer methods of reaching windows at this level are effectively mandatory.

For this reason, hydraulic powered access platforms are increasingly used to clean windows on multi-storey buildings, and even on low-rise buildings where ladder access is considered too hazardous or inefficient.

Nationwide Access, the UK’s largest hirer of powered access equipment, supplies machines to most of the leading commercial cleaning companies for use both inside and outside buildings.

One typical client is OCS, who use Nationwide in various areas of the UK.

“I’ve got four or five clients who are leading cleaning companies”, says John Tominay, regional manager for Nationwide.“They are increasingly making use of our equipment, not only for safety reasons – although that is very important – but also because powered access is the most economical option in so many cases”.

Robert Gibbs, regional manager for special cleaning and window cleaning at OCS’Birmingham office says “We use two main types of access platform from Nationwide.The 35m truck mounted Bronto machine is used for windows up to eight storeys high. For lower-rise buildings we use a Genie 45 or a Genie 60 [13m and 20m self-propelled boom lifts respectively]”.

The Bronto truck mounts require a Nationwide driver to operate the basket while OCS personnel carry out the cleaning work. But the Genie machines are operated by OCS’s own staff.

“Our staff have been trained by Nationwide to use the machines and they are all fully certificated and competent” says Mr Gibbs.

OCS carries out window cleaning for a large number of major bluechip clients with properties all over the UK.

Just as OCS provides a national service to clients, so too does Nationwide. As the UK’s only truly national access hirer,Nationwide is well-placed to provide major clients with a full one-stop service throughout the UK.

“Our aim is always to pursue a full service agreement with national clients”, confirms John Tominay.“The larger companies understand the economies of sourcing a service from a single supplier and as profit margins in the window-cleaning industry are typically very slim,we can offer a very cost-effective solution”.

Because many high-rise buildings are equipped with their own ropeaccess systems, powered access platforms are used for only a minority of window-cleaning jobs, admits John Tominay. But he believes that the proportion of cleaning contracts requiring this equipment is likely to increase.

“Many buildings have rope-access systems that are simply not used any more, and many new buildings are built without them”, he says.

“They are expensive to install and to maintain – in fact many are not maintained properly at all.

It is cheaper to hire in a mobile access platform on a regular basis – perhaps three or four times a year – than to maintain an expensive piece of equipment that spends most of its time sitting on the roof of the building doing nothing”, says Mr Tominay.

Signing up to a regular service from a reputable equipment supplier takes a lot of hassle away from the building maintenance and facilities manager.And your windows will still look just as clean.

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