My mother was complaining about her windows and not being able to get them clean after three attempts. I took a look from the inside and the outside. It looked like she disturbed the oxidation on the trim around her windows and the white residue dried on the glass. I took some of the d-limonene (however you spell it) and brushed the glass twice. It took it off, however, I wound up brushing the siding on that side and rinsed with a garden hose due to disturbing the oxidation around the windows and shutters.
Is there a window washer on here that can give me a better way to tackle it next time?
Oh, rinsing siding with a garden hose is annoying as heck, because you are accustomed to rinsing quicker with your rig.
Thanks. I don’t offer window cleaning as part of my gig, so I don’t have a WFP system. But your process is clean frames and rinse, then clean glass and rinse. I like that bit and can tuck it away. I normally tell my customers that their windows will be cleaner when I am done, but I don’t do windows.
It’s tricky, that white BS will smear around the edges. I just make sure to use a fresh, dry spot on my towel and wait a few seconds to make sure it didn’t happen again.
This seems to be one of the most recent window threads on here so I’ll just throw this in here and see what happens.
A customer of mine acquired this house and they’re attempting to clean it up a bit before they get in there and start renovations. The house had brand new windows installed 20 years ago and the house has sat vacant ever since. The areas affected appear to all be under a covered porch area. There is some sort of white scum all over the windows that they can’t seem to get off. The area the home is located in has very high sulphur content (it’s on a well) and I’m assuming the water is probably quite hard, too. Is this hard water staining? That’s my best guess but I have not seen the property in person. Being vacant for so long, I highly doubt someone has been cleaning the windows with well water in that amount of time. They had a cleaning company attempt to do the windows but they’re using the well water so I’m sure that’s an exercise in futility.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m not interested in cleaning any windows. Just wanting to give him an idea of things he might try. I would refer him to a window cleaning company but I don’t know of any that service that remote area.
I’ve seen weirder. Another customer of mine bought one that was a complete gut and remodel. They put a new roof on, new windows, outside completely finished, new floors, cabinets, etc. and then completely abandoned the project. All of the hardware, ceiling fans, etc was shoved into closets and cabinets and just left like that for almost 15 years. Pretty incredible waste of a ton of money on that one. It sat on almost 40 acres too.
Joe is on point with the 0000 steel wool/squeegee. If that doesn’t do it, they could be fogged in between the panes, and there’s nothing to be done about that.
Yup, hard water. Pretty much the high rise New Yorkers use bioclean for that. Clean the glass, apply the bio, use a white scrub pad and scrub, then clean it off again with a scrubber and squeegee.
You don’t want to do restoration work unless you make at least 30-50 per window, idk, just better not to do it lol
I would use one restore. Prewet, apply and rinse. If it is any kind of mineral based scum, chances are it will be gone and the glass will look awesome. You could do the job as a glass restoration. Just dont let it dry on the glass. It is strong enough to etch it. Also any oxidation below the windows or on the painted frames will be gone. Just keep that in mind if you have oxidation on siding under glass on the siding… it will streak… you would need to do full oxidation removal on that side of the home. HD Britenol is also another eacochem product that is more mild but effective.
Thank you for the advice. I’ve passed it along. Personally, I’d rather amputate my own pinky toe with a dull, rusty scalpel than ever clean windows. It wouldn’t work well with my ADHD lol
that is insane
