Bad window cleaning or bad glass?

When you have your windows cleaned they literally look like there is nothing there. You see no spots, no streaks, and no dirt. The glass is invisible. That is the way I like to see it, so to speak at Mr. Glass Window & Carpet Cleaning.  After a good cleaning and the sparkle is back in the glass you can sit back and enjoy.

Every once in a while though you might look close and notice there are streaks or spots on the glass or I should say between the glass. When you look really close you will notice you can’t wipe the spot off. You can’t get the spot off indoors or out. What is it? Look again, I mean get right up on it. Put your nose to the glass. Do you see it? Yes, it’s between the glass. How can that be?

As you can tell the window is made of two pieces of glass sandwiched together and it is between these two on the surface of one  where you might see a spot, a drip, or what appears like where a wet towel was run accross the surface and dryed. The window has failed. It has been compromised. The seal is bad. The seal has leaked.

All of the above.

Somehow the adhesive that is used to hermetacally seal the glass creating a small air gap has allowed air to infiltrate this space. How? I’ll get to that in just a bit. Just know that there is air getting in between the windows two panes of glass. This is not good. The windows are evacuated of air at the factory and sometimes even filled with an inert gas to to act as resistance to heat transfer. The problem is that the air carries moisture and now you are getting moisture between the panes of glass. This is contrary to the way the windows are engineered. One of the things a window is supposed to do is keep condensation off the glass inside your house. The two panes of glass add a sufficient amount of insulation most of the time to keep warm moist air inside the house from condensing on the cold glass. Think of your glass of ice tea on a hot summer day. The moisture in the air condenses on the cold glass. So goes it with the warm inside air against the cold glass. By adding that extra pane of glass, like a double walled insulated cup you can prevent the condensation from forming .

This usually works quite well but sometimes air laden with moisture will enter the air gap and you will get a bad window. You can do one of three things;  replace it, live with it, or live with it as long as you can stand it then replace it. Yes, I am sorry to say it will need to be replaced… period. Some folks say they can repair a window. But really are they going to take it apart, clean it, evacuate it, and seal it? I don’t think so. Keep in mind replacing a window doesn’t generally mean cutting a window out just replacing the bad glass. A pretty easy fix for someone who knows what they are doing.

How does a window become compromised? It can be bad from the factory. It can happen during construction. It can happen because you applied an interior filmed tint. It can be weather related most specifically direct east or west sun. How ever it happens the one common thread is that the seal some how gets moved, tweaked, twisted or distorted.

The constant strains of heating and cooling caused from the exposure to direct sun will make a seal fail. During constrction, if a window is forced to fit into an opening it will fail.  Think of a wood frame stucture-your house absorbing and releasing moisture all year round-expanding and shrinking this will make a seal fail. 

I’ve seen fingerprints, dust, bugs you name it on the inside of glass. All of this stuff sealed into the panes at the factory and delivered to your builer. A lot can go wrong with windows and most of what does happenes very early in its life. While we are cleaning windows we often find problem glass and will report it to the owners, that’s our job that’s what we do that’s what we get paid for. So enjoy your clean windows and feel free to point out any suspect spots with our professional staff. Window cleaners can do more than put the shine back in your glass they can also shed some new light on your windows. Dirty windows or just bad glass? Now you know.

Dennis Chisholm

Mr. Glass Window & Carpet Cleaning

360 834 4948

Spring window & carpet cleaning

Getting things clean in the Spring  just seems the natural order of the calendar. We leave winter more than willingly and look forward to the regeneration of spring. Longer daylight hours and more sun streaming  through our wintered windows and on to our well trafficed carpets. It doesn’t take much to entice our longing for a clean adobe.

Cleaning doesn’t always have to be an all or nothing proposition. If you’ve been keeping things up maybe just a light  cleaning will do for your window  and carpet cleaning. Not always but sometimes I get requests to wash the exterior windows only or just to clean around furniture for the carpets. It  is a really a good way to make a dramatic improvement. Exterior windows are always the dirtiest and yo will see most of the drama when you clean them. doing the traffic patterns on the carpets and around furnitue will really make you smile as well. Later in the summer you can do both interior and exterior. This works really well for commercial cleaning where the outside apperance needs to inviting all year.

As far as the carpet cleaning, sometimes just a freshening up is all that is necessary. Going around furniture instead of moving and blocking each piece of furniture can save you some hard earned money. Getting a more thorough cleaning as prescribed by your warranties can come later inthe year when you start to experience more foot traffic. Make sure you are using  licensed, insured and IICRC certified cleaners. Certified carpet cleaners will make sure your carpets are done properly by trained technicians and you get more for your money.

 

Well time for me to get out there and destroy some dirt.

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Can you really get clean windows with Dionized water? Well that depends sometimes yes sometimes no. First off lets explain briefly what deionized water is. Put simply it is pure water without any dissolved solids which will leave windows spotless when cleaned with a water fed pole. Water generally is run through a mixed resin bead bed that is the opposite charge of  the impurities in the water. As the impurities in the water run through the resin bed the impurities will attach themselves to the oppositely charged beads leaving the water 99.9% pure. Just like little magnets. The beads are as small as fine sand. Without impurities left to linger after the water evaporates from the windows …no spots!

Does it work? Definately! It is actually amazing how well it works. I have cleaned windows with DI water with a water fed pole and it could be rated superior to squugee cleaned windows in some cases. If the water sheens accross the glass the results are going to be good. If the water seperates like large splotches the results will more than likely be poor.

What can go wrong? Plenty. Even if the beads are new and are not in need of recharging you can still leave spots. Any dirt on the frames of the windows  that get wet and run on the glass will leave spots. Splash over from a dirty window to a clean window will leave spots. Any untreated water on the windows will leave spots. Technique is probably the biggest determining factor in whether spots will remain. Of course the resin will not take impuities out of the water indefinately, they will have to be regenerated at some point. Leading up to that point you will leave spots.

So you can get results and as a home owner you need not be worried that your window cleaner will leave spots but he better be an experienced window washer.

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A home owners best friend for any  spills on your carpet  is the small wet and dry vacuum. Carpet cleaners know that if you spill anything on your carpets it is best to be really quick in getting what ever it is off the carpet.  Say for example you cruise from the refrigerator to the lazyboy with some soda and you bump the sofa and spill your soda. What do you do?

 

First things first. Grab the wet and dry vac…now, not next commercial. Suck up as much as you can and a whole lot more. Rinse with some clear water and rinse again and again. If you do this you will more than likely never need to do anything else. If that doesn’t  do it  just add a little soapy water and that should do it. Emphasis is on a little.  A little soap goes a long way. It must be rinsed out well or it will remain in the carpet and continue to do it’s job…attract dirt. You know surfactants wetting agents and the such. If they are left in the carpet they will continue to attract dirt like magnets, so get it out.

Usually what happens is that you wait untll the soda drys or you try and blot it up and leave a lot of soda behind in the carpet. That is not good because as the moistur in the soda evaporates it leaves the sugar behind and will easily resoil. Spot returns.

So get yourself a small wet and dry, about 2 gallon and you will be prepared for those accidents that always happen from the fridge to the lazyboy. Check out the spotting guide at www.mrglassin.com

Window Ceaning Mr. Glass vancouver washington

When cleaning your windows you might want to clean your screens as well. It is really pretty easy. Lets go over the procedure for a small ranch from start to finish. Start by removing the screens from the exterior. Some screens are removed from the indide but we are assuming these are the exterior type.

Drop the screen infront of the window.

Go clock wise around the house stopping in front each window and drop it next to the window.

After all the screens are off start back counter clockwise collecting the screens as you go. Put one on top of the other as you go.

Put your pile flat on the drive way in front of the garage.

Hose down the screens.

Get a brush wet then put some dawn liquid soap on the brush.

Clean one side of the screen turn it over then clean that side.

Lean the screen on the garage door and finish cleaning eachscreen like the last then leaningonto the garage door.

Hose down the pile of screens washing the suds off the screens.

Pick up one screen at a time rinsing it as you go then lean up against the garage door further to your right.

When you are done just let the screens set to dry.

Put the screens back on, they should all be in order just find a starting point.

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What do you do when the window cleaner has come and gone then the grand kids arrive?

We have all had it happen your professional window cleaner just made his twice yearly visit to jumpstart the mood for Spring with brilliantly sparkling windows. Then what happens? The grand kids or maybe your kids have found the glass right after the peanut butter sandwiches. How do you fix it. Most of the time you will make just anothe rsmudgy mess trying to clean up. Try this:

• Get the heavy stuff off the glass with a little warm soapy water on a sponge or cloth.
• Dry the area with a clean towel. Don’t worry just yet how it might look, that is coming uo.
• Now  that the area is kind of clean get a nice lintless cotton towel. We use surgical towels. Don’t have those? Give me a call at 360 607 1673 or 360 834 4948 and I’ll set you up with one. Get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and put a sprayer on it.
• The area needs to be perfectly dry first. Give a couple of sprays on mist with the alcohol. Wipe completly dry with your linless towel and Viola, perfectly clear streakless glass.
• We routinely touch up like this though all the big stuff is done with strip washers and squeegees. All our final walk throughs are done this way as well.

This technique is I think superior to using commercial products, you know the blue kind because it is a lot easier to get streakless windows. Trust me after12 years I’ve tried it all.

www.mrglassinc.com

Window & Carpet Cleaning Vancouver Washington

When is a good time to get my windows cleaned? Dennis Chisholm with Mr. Glass Window & Carpet Cleaning says If you haven’t had your windows cleaned since Fall you are probably due. Do you miss seeing that crystal clear look? Does things look abit hazy? Get the glass done. No one can control the weather but you can control the way you feel. Get the windows done

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