Hidden Etched Glass Could Destroy Your Company

Glass can be etched in different ways by different chemicals.  Probably the most common is HF.  This can ripple out or orange peal glass surfaces.  It will magnify any kind of glass scratch, light or heavy.  It can also create a white haze that will not come off with soapy water and a squeegee.  This haze can be opague or barely visible.  All of these effects can be covered by simple dirt and revealed by window cleaning.  That puts all of us at risk!

We need to first be able to identify these different types of etch.  But not just the owners of window cleaning companies.  But all employees too.  Simply because they are in the field doing the work.  They will have control over the work.  They will be in a position to call off the job until the problem is resolved.  Before it becomes a lawsuit.

I have always found over the last 42 years cleaning windows that when I bring something to my customers attention first it gives me the advantage.  But it always helps when I can speak with a certain degree of knowledge and exerience.

Etched glass is not the only damage that can be reveled.  There are many types of damage.  If you happen to be dealing with such a situation please give me a call or send a text and we can talk about it.  I am here to help.  Please take a look at my website.  Check out the Gallery.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.

603-498-9474

glasssmart@protonmail.com

glasssmartconsulting.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA/videos

You Are All Consultants

No one wants to hear anything negative.  So I never tell a homeowner in advance that I will report any scratches, abrasion marks, stains, etched surfaces, failed insulating units, negative deflection, etc.  Neither will I report that to the general contractor or anyone else that I work for.  At the beginning of the job;... however.  If I am working on any window that is scratched then I have to bring that to the owners attention.  Because if I don't, they might hold me accountable.  At the end of the job or maybe a week or a month later.  The same is true for cracked glass, etched glass, hard water spots, or even failed insulating units.  People just don't know about this stuff.  They don't even know if they have an exposed low e coating.  Not to mention degassed argon and the implosion dangers of negative deflection!  So many things are just way beyond them.  These are things that are also way beyond most employees of window cleaning companies.  But your employees need this knowledge.  It is critical for your protection.  It is also a fantastic way to maintain ownership of your accounts.  When your customers witness this kind of knowledge they gain an enhanced appreciation of your company.  And will never call someone else in even if they charge less.

These things are infact the very basis of the Glass Smart window cleaner.  Do you want to have a Glass Smart company?  Do you want to be Glass Smart yourself.  This is actually the reason why I started this blog so many years ago.  This is the reason why I started developing special niche products for non-routine window cleaning.

The next Poor Peoples Pub Meet is coming up this Thursday, February 24th at 3pm.  We did not have a Meet in January because I was sick and didn't think anyone would be ok with that.  But as I write this I am feeling good.  Thursday looks like a good day for travel.  We will likely meet in the side room as usual unless we only have a few show up.

Since this Glass Smart technology is based on very special niche products I would like to show you one right here right now in a video that I made about a couple years ago.  Just remember the paint that I used for this experiment was so hard I couldn't even scrape it off with a single edge steel razor blade.  This is what I am talking about!  This is why we need to continue to have these Pub Meets.  This is about two minutes long.  

Written by Henry Grover Jr.

603-498-9474

glasssmart@protonmail.com

glasssmartconsulting.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA/videos

Eyes Wide Open;..."Seeing" the Scratch

Can you just imaging the POWER you would have if someone were to blame you for scratching a million bux in scratched glass but you could provide the evidence that this was an absolute lie!  This post is going to prove to you that you will have that power.  Lets look at the animal!

This is a scratch from a dime.  It looks like a fat worm with about a hundred lit up body sections.  This is a typical characteristic of metal scratches as you can see further down.  They represent jumps or skips.

These scraches are all created by a 220 SiC coated piece of black 3M emery paper.  If I had made a circle the scratches would have been circular.  What IS significant about these scratches is if you use the same magnification you can determine roughly the rating of the coated paper.  This one was a 3M 220.

I created this interesting scratch using a small piece of broken bottle glass.  It is more of an abrasion band than a series of very fne scratches.  But it is very characteristic of a scratch from a broken piece of glass.  Very typical of the kind of scratches that people create on storefront glass with broken bottles.

This is George Washingtons eye from a dollar bill turned sideways.  At the same mag that I have taken the other micrographs here.  I have included it because it gives you a better idea of size.

This is the 220 3M emry coated that I used to create the perfectly parallel scratches above.  The bright reflective area is the glue holding the silicon carbide (SiC) particles together.  The particles are the black area.  These pictures are significant because they help us in finding the best paper for grinding glass which preps it for using cerium oxide slurry.

This scratch is VERY interesting.  It is a metal scratch.  I made it using a cheap pair of steel scissors.  You can see the segmentations of the previous metal scratch made with a dime.  But these are so much more defined.  They are perfectly circular and tend to be a similar distance apart in different places.  It makes me want to talk with some of the hair dressors on my route that buy 300 dollar scissors.  My guess is that metal has a greater "slip factor" which changes the look of the scratch.

This is a magnified image of the scratches made with the 220 Coated Paper.  You can see how parralel they are next to one another.  But I have included one of my own hairs which appears yellow here.  I have both yellow and grey.  The strand of hair shows how thick the 220 SiC scratches are.

There is so much that can be learned from these scratches simply because we know exactly what caused them.  This is what lets us identify the cause of any hidden scratches that we might reveal when we clean the windows.  I will continue to make scratches and send you pictures.  There are other types of damaged glass too.  Such as what happens when a scratch makes contact with different solutions of acids.  Like sulfuric, hydrofluoric, and others.  That will be a lesson in itself! 

This a picture of my little microscope that cost obout fifty bux.  You will need to get something similar so you can begin compiling your own micrographs on your phone.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.

603-498-9474

henrygrover222@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA/videos

Revealing Hidden Scratch Patterns

The scratches shown here in this post were taken with my TAKMLY at about 50X magnification.  This is a handheld microscope that connects by WiFi to my IPhone through the Max-See_d4fO app.  The scratch patterns were from actual damage done in the field.  The first thing you will notice is the difference between these pictures. Many things can be learned from the details.  Which cannot be learned without a microscope.  Such details are very valuable in determining the innocence of the window cleaning company.  But only when compared to scratches with a known history.  It is for this reseason that I have included the beginning of a compilatation of such "known" scatches.  Meaning scratches caused by different sized particles, aluminum ladders, diamond rings, broken glass, rocks, greeny pads, etc.

If you look further down in this blog you will see how I have been able to make glass frictive or scratch sensitive.  This process creates the same exact surface for generating all of the different types of scratches and more.  A work like this has NEVER been undertaken.  It is my hope that it will help to reveal what has been hidden for so long.  And serve as a very practical tool even in court.  I don't know howe many times I have recieved reports from window cleaners that were being sued over scratched glass issues.  It is about time we stopped guessing about this and actually took a real good look at the animal!  Well here is the animal people.  Take a look.

This first picture appears to be of a wide scratch which is more of an abrasion than even a series of scratches all bunched together.

This is a very different type of scratch that is rather deep.  Also whatever caused this scratch ended up removing slices of glass.  Also for some reason it looks more "fluid".  Maybe the reason for the difference betweenthis scratch and the one below it is speed.  I am sure the tests I do will reveal at least some of the reasons.

The slices removed here were more like "chunks".  Which were rather curvy.  You can see a much smaller scratch right above the deep one.  It appears very similar however.  My guess would be whatever caused the first also caused the second.  Just with a much lighter pressure.

Here you can see many smaller scratches, most running parrallel.  So it appears to be am abrasion.  Since there are many other scratches that don't follow the same pattern they were likely formed by a different means.

These scratches were likely formed by the same means.  They also have a slight curve.  So I am thinking they were formed by hand.

These scratches were rather straight.  Going in different directions.  Also of different thicknesses.  So I am thinking they were formed by several different means.  This is what the pattern shows.  My guess is that none of the above scratches were formed with the aided of a razor and what I have called the ghost particle.  Simply because the pattern of scratches would be parrallel and all be about the same thickness.  If you think about it almost every time defective surfaces have the same sound when a razor is lightly passed over the window.

I have absolutely no clue exactly how these scratches were formed and by what means.  But I will be creating scratches by different means and then taking micrographs of such scratches.  But we can still learn certain things from these pictures.  As I have described above.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.

603-498-9474

glasssmart@protonmail.com

glasssmartconsulting.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA/videos

Every Job is a Potential Lawsuit!

Dirt can and does cover over anything.  Scratches, stains, paint, concrete sealant, etched glass, and so much more.  Every dirty window potentially hides any of these problems.  The greatest concern are scratches, etched surfaces, and other blemishes.  These do not come off easily.  And we can easily be blamed for them.  Even by old trusted customers.  To explain.  Lets say we just finish a job.  It looks perfect.  We get paid.  Some one else comes in afterward to work on the house.  They get something on the glass and must remove it.  In doing this they scratch the glass.  Which scratches are covered by dirt.  Next year we come back to clean the windows again.  We do NOT use a razor.  But the scratches are revealed.  We are blamed.  Our trusted customer says it was our rubber that left the scratches.  The burden is on us to prove that we did not scratch the windows.  So we might have taken the razor blade away from all of our employees.  But that is still not the ultimate answer to the scratched glass problem.

Another situation can happen when another window cleaner ends up scratching some windows.  But does not tell the owner.  The windows get really dirty.  We are called in.  No razors are used.  We clean the windows and reveal the scratches.  Lawsuit time.

How about this one.  Cumberland Farms are going up all over.  Construction is doing very well as of late.  But they don't clean their windows.  Straight from the factory windows can be scratched, etched, or otherwise damaged in many different ways.  But such will never be revealed until the windows are professionally cleaned by a trained eye.  After one year however the warranty will have expired.  And Cumberland Farms and any other company will own the damage.

There are techniques for protecting against potential lawsuits and protecting windows from the loss of warrantees. This is one of the focuses of Glass Smart Consulting.  Which I would like to work with my window cleaning customers on.  Just give me a call at 603-498-9474 and leave a text with your phone number and a time you would like to talk.

Written by Henry Grover Jr.

603-498-9474

glasssmart@protonmail.com

glasssmartconsulting.com

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzhmAWtlsHJiwRd6WrgGyA/videos