detailing is removing the small amount of water left along the edge of the window. we use a two towel method, a wet towel and a dry towel. the wet towel we used to suck up 90% of the water and then we use the dry towel to get the last 10%. as the dry towel starts to get a little wetter we drop off the wet towel and the dry towel becomes the new wet towel and we grab a new towel to be our dry towel.
If you squeegee the ledge and get good enough. There should only be 10% left before even grabbing your towelâŚno?
this system is most useful for inside, but we do use our towel to dry/clean out the sill frame where the screen sits, and i use the wet/ damp towel to clean the frame.
Ill be doing commerical/storefrontsâŚso wont need to worry about sills or tracksâŚi dont think
I also like to pre-detail my windows. I go around the window edge (after I mopped it up) with my wet/damp towel so that when I squeegee it there is nothing left to detail because the edges are already dry and I donât have to dry off the frame.
1.25% Lol
Hahaha my appologizes. clearly i am not good yet rofl
The ledge towel will be dirty, so you wouldnât want to touch glass with it. Your detailing towel stays relatively clean.
Thatâs case by case. If itâs not too bad, your towel will be faster than redoing the whole window. Also, redoing the whole window might still not remove it. Sometimes you just need to bust out the steel wool or magic eraser, but often your towel has enough scrubbing power that with a little pressure you can remove the spec. Youâll get a feel for it. I almost never redo a window.
Ooooooooh ok. So detailing is the window itselfâŚi thought detailing was wiping the top and sides. Ok that makes sense. But i never want to touch the window after i squeegee it. Again i just feel like i smeer or streak with my towelâŚ
The two towel system helps prevent that. So does using less soap and using hucks/scrims for detailing. Oh, and holding the bottom of the towel with your other hand so it doesnât touch the glass.
Funny how confusing the terminology can be sometimes. It seems simple, but little differences in meaning make huge differences in results. Thatâs why i recently advised one new member to accept that she was using a word incorrectly rather than think people were knit-picking.
A good technique to use with your detailing towel/scrim is to only use one area of it several times then rotate to another area several inches away. This sequential usage will help you get maximum usage and you wonât have to carry so many and wash them so frequently.
Another factor for using two towels is that you would not want your favorite detail towel/scrim to get snagged and torn on a metal frame or ledge, which you will be dealing with all day long as a storefront WCer.
So just to clarify. Detailing is wiping off a small spot or spec from the window itself. And you use 1 towel for that. AND you use ANOTHER SEPERATE towel to clean the top/sides/ledgeâŚ
Is that correct?
Or just simply use one rag for all detailing. Seems simple if you want to eliminate carrying more than neccessary.
Incorrect. Detailing towel is the one that touches the glass in anyway. Specks, âLeft Behindâ (aka Holidays), Runners(weeping water running down from the frames and seals), and wiping where the frame makes contact with the glass(wiping the edges). Your ledge towel(aka, slop towel, wipe-up towel) removes the majority of the water that is setting on the bottom part of the window. You can use a sponge for this, as well. You can also use a ledge squeegee (3-6" is kind of normal for this). Try not to use your regular window cleaning squeegee to remove the water from the ledge because of the increased risk of nicking the rubber and wearing out the rubber much sooner. The six inch or less rubber is much cheaper to replace. That being said, we are all probably guilty of using our regular sized squeegee to clear the ledge from time to time. It can get expensive, especially on first time cleans.
Yes, but no. For me, it normally depends how dirty my mop is. If the windows havenât been cleaned in a while your mop is going to get dirty quick. You can have a wet mop and yet it is dirty. Take the time to rinse it out even if itâs wet.
On windows that get cleaned regularly you usually wonât have to rinse out the mop except between jobs.
SLAP YOUR HAND.
Thatâs due mostly to cleaning âclean windowsâ this will change when you start getting new accounts. If you keep using your regular squeegee to clean ledges you will notice how expensive it is to not use a towel.
SLAP YOUR HAND AGAIN
This is trueâŚIt can be more expensive to do it any other way than what experience has taught the people giving advice here.
To remove a streak or spotâŚUse a clean, dry, DRY detailing towelâŚin one movement and only in one direction wipe the smear with a lifting motion at the end. Donât do anything elseâŚjust wait and see if evaporation makes it go away. If it isnât gone in about twenty seconds wipe it again in the above fashion.
Re-doing the window is good practiceâŚbut, sometimes you just have to wipe and move. Especially if you keep using your regular squeegee to clear the ledge water.
Iâm kidding with you, I was the worst about using my regular squeegee to clear water from everything. Until I had to order another pack of rubber in less than 30 days. And here I thought I had got a bad batch of blades. That solved that bad habit quick.
SLAP YOUR HAND AGAIN
For squeegeeing off the bottom ledge?? Really? Haha
And your response to my clarification was exactly what i said lol use 1 towel for window. Another for everything elseâŚso your answer was âcorrectâ not âincorrectââŚhaha
Id say go for it, squeegee those ledges, catch it with applicator.
Saves use of rags to carry if you get the majority of water back into applicator.
$2.79 +TAX
7 inches of rubber cut from an old 24" blade, maybe 02 cents.
Old Sorbo handle and 6" channel, maybe $20 now.
I never have to buy blades specifically for the ledge and I can use the 7" squeegee, 6" squeegee if I take the plastic bump tips out, to clean cut-ups and other small glass. i can also drape a detail towel over it to use on a pole. Oh, but you can do that with yourâs too.
No, you are incorrect there, too. Compare the following two quotes and you might notice the difference; or later, you might learn the difference.
So i can order 20 for the price of your setup. I get where your getting atâŚi do. But you keep forgetting im on a budget. So this 1.01 rubber squeegee will work until for now. And you have officially confused me 100x more then when i started with the towelsâŚso ill just go with what i want.
And yes thats pretty much what i said about towelsâŚremember people have different words to refer to the same thingâŚ
This method is amazing. It should be the new standard way detailing is taught.
Funny, I stumbled upon this idea a few weeks ago when i developed my waterfall method for cleaning windows in the sun or with bleeding frames. I was only pre-detailing the top, but had this slight moment of thinking, âWow, this is really good. I should do this to the top and sides all the time.â I quickly dismissed it because it felt somehow too unorthodox, but after hearing you suggest it, I tried it for every window and it rocks! So quick, simple, and effective. And incidentally, very effective on bleeding frames. Nice tip @leavingnc!