Interestingly enough there is another industry closely related to Window Cleaning that even less people are aware of. Even Window Cleaners don't know about it. This is the Hydrophobics Industry. That is the technology of chemically sealing the surface of window glass so that it becomes hydrophobic or water hating. This industry is really quite large.
There are multimillion dollar companies like PPG that have developed products like Aquapel aimed at the auto world.
http://www.aquapel.com/What-is-Aquapel.php
http://www.enduroshieldusa.com/
http://www.dfisolutions.com/products/diamon-fusion/
http://www.hydroshield.com/
http://www.inovexcoatings.com/products/glass-hydrophobic/
https://www.rainx.com/product/glass-water-repellents-cleaners/rainx-original-glass-treatment/#.VzUYIoQrKXo
Others too like Repcon, Rain-X, and the Invisible Shield. Then we have products like Enduroshield, Diamon Fusion, and Hydroshield that have been aimed at the granite, porcelain and architectural glass world. Years ago we had two products developed by DuPont down in Wilmington Delaware. One of them based on a PTFE (teflon) chemistry was discontinued. The other one known simply as their TLF 8291 was marketed to the mirror manufacturers. Here it was called Mar Guard. But it too has been discontinued. There are other companies that have specialized in silicon (the element not the molecule) chemistry. These have developed both hydrophobic and hydrophylic sealants for glass. I think by now you get the idea. That there has been a ton of money devoted to developing this type of product. There has also been a ton of money spent to have one of these applied to buildings. Even and especially brand new buildings. How much money? Just do the math. At four bux a square foot multiply by the number of square feet. A large office building for example might have five hundred windows. At 30 square feet per window this comes to 60,000 bux.
What amazes me is some of these buildings are brand new. That means the sealant is being applied to new glass that hasn't even been stained yet. How do you sell that? My guess is a lot of hype. We know that is is tough enough to sell a stain removal job. And we really don't want it. We just want to keep the window cleaning contract. Now sealing glass is not a bad thing. It absolutely will help to prevent weathering of the glass over the years. And make it much easier to remove any stains that might develop. Especially if the window glass is flush with the exterior facade and there are bricks or concrete directly above every window. Or if you are doing a job that is almost or right on the ocean. What coastal window cleaning company isn't painfully aware of the problem of sea salt? Sprinklers systems too must be positioned right next to windows. Especially if they carry very hard ground water. So yeah. There are situations where one can most definitely predict that brand new buildings will be stained. Sometimes a brand new building will start developing stains before it is more than a few months old. What would help us sell a sealant would be a quick demo. Just look at a new building with this in mind. Look for the sprinklers or the design of the windows and concrete, brick, or stucco. Then clean a window, fog it to show the newly forming spots. Which will become unsightly braille over time. Then make your pitch. At this point it would be rather easy to remove these deposits and seal the glass. Pricing correctly is very important so you can make a profit. I will save this for another post. However the easy answer to that question is just to actually do one entire window for a demo, add up your times, add in the cost of your products, then multiply by what you will need to make per man hour. Always add around 20 percent to the final quote just to be safe.
Written by Henry Grover Jr.
henrygroverjr@gmail.com
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