Something that’s been annoying me from the beginning and i still haven’t figured out a great way to handle is how to handle detailing the bottom on residential. The problem is this: when i make a pass with my towel it sucks water back up from the seal or frame and puts it back on the glass, often at least a half inch. Then it takes at least three more passes to get it dry and i still often discover a haze at the bottom later. This seems like a complete newb issue, but there must be something I’m missing here. Any advice?
i use a microfibre (yellow from costco to wipe bottom). then scrim to wipe all around if required.
never use your detail material for picking up botom slop.
i enter with:
damp microfiber for track and slop
clean scrim for detailing.
clean dry microfiber as back up
depending on the solution and tools i use for the job detailing and slop pick up are sometimes not required at all.
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That’s actually about the same set-up i use. It’s not the bottom slop but “hidden” water that’s getting pulled up.
Embrace the side pull Grasshopper.
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good point @Garry i often maybe even usually close to side.
also when using 3m glass cleaner with squeegee there’s pretty much nothing to pick up.
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We follow squeegee with applicator below, catching majority of water prior to landing on sills. Eliminates most of the water left behind requiring less rags.
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Yeah, don’t pull up, just wipe to the side.
I don’t. The water is getting sucked up into the rag and then wetting the window as i swipe to the side.
Try not touching the bottom sill when detailing the bottom. Just run one finger of dry rag slightly above the frame so you let that trapped water stay trapped.
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When detailing use 2 hands one with the rag on your fingers to detail the window, The other to hold the rag away from getting wet.
Roookies always have soaking wet rags , an/or use an abundance of rags
I like using scrims only for detailing. Hucks, an terry cloth towels for wiping up
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Are you using hucks or microfiber?
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Scrim for glass, previously PVA towel but now terry-style microfiber for slop.
let it dry and then detail it…
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Ya I use to use the PVA towels. They get to dirty I do like them though
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Carry extra towels… if it’s an issue when you are finished and checking windows or putting back screens hit the bottoms with a towel/bronze wool after you have let it dry
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A lot of great suggestions here.
Here are some things that could be going on:
1- Too much soap etc… in the water.
2- Too much solution on the window…Most of the time, for inside work wring out the mop really good. Or, instead of a mop use a wet towel.
3- Letting your solution, or mop, get too dirty…Excessively dirty water doesn’t evaporate as quickly, or cleanly, as clean water does. Inside work wash and wring out mop more.
4- You’re not laundering your detailing towels properly, or enough, when you do.
5- Not enough dry towel for the amount of water that needs soaking up…try a couple of folds of material on your bottom pass.
6- Swiping the bottom too quickly…the towel can’t soak it up fast enough. So, the water climbs the window. Try less water, more dry towel, and/or slow down on the bottom pass.
7- Blame it on the weather or the air conditioning…too much humidity and/or temp differential can cause problems with the speed of evaporation.
8- Excessive obsessing…This was my biggest bad habit to break…set a time limit for detailing. If you are spending more time detailing than you are mopping and squeegeeing you have a big problem, and it’s not the window you’re cleaning.
Think: Swipe top, Swipe down, Swipe down, S-w-i-p-e Bot-tom. Check glass for holidays and runners, check sill for drips, and move.
Remember, all things being normal, clean solution and evaporation are your friend.
Try this: Clean the window. Do the above detailing and wait. Don’t touch anything, just wait long enough for you to clean another window or two. Now look at the window. Is there a problem with it? If there is, from the above list, which one might it be? If there isn’t a problem with the window than number 8 was the problem.
You’re going to double check your work anyway, right?..Right? For weeping runners, hazing, making sure the windows are closed and locked, curtains are put back where you started, etc… So, give yourself a break and give evaporation a chance.
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Great suggestions, D… It’s more than likely #8. 
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Give it about 500,000 more panes and your obession will subside to just doing the job.
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Just wanted to mention a breakthrough that’s already significantly improved my detailing speed. I learned this in one of @Beautiful_View’s videos. It’s such a basic thing, but he recommended doubling your detailing rag. Started doing that and now it’s soaking up the water easily most of the time with just one pass, sometimes two. Probably quite elementary to you guys or just common sense but since it wasn’t to me, I thought I’d mention it to help any other newbs that may encounter this issue in the future.
I also have accepted the fact that you often have to wipe more slowly especially for the bottom as @Dee suggests. And I’m using my own trick of using more than a finger for the bottom (usually up to the first knuckles of a few fingers, similar to the position you’d type in) so that if the water does want to travel upward, it travels into the towel.
Lastly, I think sometimes it helps not to jam your towel into the edge but instead to conscientiously avoid it, only touching the glass. The 1/32" that’s left will dry invisibly anyway.
Again, these are little things you don’t pick up on a YouTube video (if they’re not explicitly stated). You just see someone barely wipe things down at lightening speed on a perfect storefront window and then don’t realize the nuances that are involved. So you try to do what you think you saw and you don’t get the results you think you should and wonder why. Anyway, hope this helps someone out.
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