General Contractors Protect Yourself From Glass/Window Defects

Ask any professional window cleaner about newly installed windows and they will tell you all kinds of horror stories.  Things like scratches on every window, negative deflective IG units, etched glass, hard water stains from concrete efflorescence, delaminated edges, inside gassing of units, missing low e films, etc.  The list just goes on.  Not every window cleaner is able to identify these defects.  Which is why you need to hire a professional consultant.

The unfortunate thing is that window cleaners many times will actually cause these defects.  Take scratched glass as an example.  Float glass many times will come straight from the factory covered with microscopic defects.  Especially tempered glass. If this is not discovered and a metal razor is used or some other scraper, scratches will result.  If windows are installed with this type of surface defect anyone can created millions of micro scratches without even knowing it.  Especially on cloudy days.  But when the bright sun comes out the next day such scratches will become way too visible.

The type of damage done or discovered can easily go into the millions.  The trained eye however can literally save you a tremendous amount of grief!  Do you know that a single temp/lami railing plate only 3 by 4 feet can cost 1700 to replace.  Scratched, etched, cracked, delaminated, or something else will require replacement.

Windows can go for many years with defects.  The owners simply just don't care.  But new owners can be ruthless.  If the glass is new you will not get it past them.  Unfortunately much of the damage done or defects cannot be detected until the windows are properly cleaned.  But the window cleaning is ALWAYS left until the very end of the job.  Which is the very worst thing to do for brand new construction.  Replacement might be easy.  But getting the replacement window in from the manufacturer and getting it installed, before the deadline for site completion is quite another matter.  

If you look at these two pictures of scratches on glass below you will notice they are very different.  The top one was done with a blunt metal object.  The lower one was done with a rock. Characterizing scratches with a microscope helps to identify the cause of each.  Inspection technology is a detailed science that uses very special tools.  Sometimes not so special.  But it always requires an educated mind that comes from experience and experiments.  This is what Glass Smart has to offer.

Glass Smart also owns NEGSA the New England Glass Smart Association of window cleaning professionals who know how to clean windows without doing damage to the windows.  They do not use acids for stain removal that etch.  Also they do not use abrasive based products that scratch.  Likewise NEGSA members are very familiar with locating defective scratch sensitive surfaces, so will never use metal razors where they should not be used.

If you have a new building going up, you should hire a member of NEGSA.  Every time!  Just give me a call and we can get someone in to help you out.  Further if I need to come to the job for a quick inspection before the cleaning this can be arranged.  The best time to inspect is actually when the windows arrive on site or are put in storage.

          Henry Grover Jr.      603-498-9474           henrygrover222@gmail.com

Inspect Tech Products

 Essentially the idea is to improvise with crossover technologies to "see" different surfaces in different ways.  Ever hear of a Sound Spectrum Analyzer?  It gives you a running profile of multiple frequencies of any sound in real time.  You can download it to your phone as I have free and profile any sound.  In theory I should be able to join this to a stethoscope and record the sound created by moving different materials such as a penny over glass surfaces.  So now I will be "seeing" glass surfaces with sound.  The beginning of a new way to understand defective scratch sensitive surfaces.  Just bought a four pound chunk of ultrapure silicon.  NOT glass.  Silicon.  

It is rather brittle.  So a single strike with a hammer will break it.  I have learned that a small piece with a sharp point is very effective at "feeling" a glass surface.  Now I just have to get a quality stethoscope and connect it to the SSA app on my phone.  The scope can be placed on the glass while running a piece of silicon over the glass.  The sound that is created moves through the glass and into the stethoscope.  Which I can connect to my phone that has the SSA app.

Phones have many apps that can be downloaded that allow for some very interesting Inspect Tech products.  Such as handheld lighted microscopes for viewing blemishes, point impact fractures (PIFs), and scratches on glass.  As pictures and videos.  I have a couple of other posts in this blog with pictures I have taken.  The images are transmitted by the app and the net to my phone.  Then I can send them to my computer and include them in the posts that I write here.  What I have already discovered is I can create a homogenous scratch sensitive surface with cerium oxide and make specific scratches with different implements like different metals, rocks/minerals, etc.  Scratches actually have identities characteristic to what caused them.  So by categorizing them I can figure out what most likely caused scratches in the field.  Can't date them yet.  But I am advancing.

Another tool I am working on is one that will tell the degree of negative deflection over a certain distance and area.  I know there are tools that can do this using lasers.  So I will look there first.  But currently I have had much success with a simple six inch Triumph razor.  Move it in one direction then another at 90 degrees of the first and take pictures of the results.  The greater the amount of soapy water left behind the more concave the negative deflection.

Then another is to use a light fog to show contamination of the micro-surface.  Usually I just use my own breath on a day with the right dew point.  But it is possible to quickly fog out an entire plate of glass using a cold sound generated fogging machine.  Then what if I were to use more than pure water?  Will different solutions create different effects and show different results?  These results are all measurable by using the hand held lighted microscope I mentioned earlier.  Because fog that condenses on glass forms little micro-drops.  Which differ in size and can be seen in the microscope.  The size depends on what chemical is on the glass.

There is actually no limit to the inspect tech tools or products that are already out there and that can be developed.  The only limit is our imagination.

My goal is to have a couple suitcases with these tools so when I arrive on site at the building I am consulting on I can open it up and get some real data!

Again if you have some buildings you would like some help with just send me an email.  Especially if you are in the New England area.  And the first talk is always free.

Henry Grover Jr.

Glass Smart Consulting

henrygrover222@gmail.com

Glass Smart Products for New England USA

 

The New England Glass Smart Association is a subgroup of IGSA.  My focus here includes industries other than window cleaning companies.  As I have operated as a consultant in New England over the years, it has always been the window cleaner who has called me into an association with general contractors, building maintenance professionals, real estate brokers, insurance companies, lawyers, and more. Sometimes the Window Cleaning company will pay me for my time, but usually it is the associate company that does this.  I think the furthest south I have traveled has been DC, west would be Ohio, and north was Halifax.  Sometimes I drive, and sometimes I go by plane.  These days I would rather drive.

The point here is when consulting on an international level I focus on the window cleaner who is just trying to do things right, get out of a damaged glass lawsuit, or insulate themselves better from any damage they might do by using the wrong products or tools.  But when working as an independent consultant on a relatively local level, I almost always end up working with an associate.  Which is the subject and focus of this post.

There are SO many associates within a couple hundred miles circumference of where I live here in NH, that I could make an easy living, in my now old age, just operating through them.  So could any other window cleaner in their area.  If they wanted to spend the time acquiring the hands on knowledge of glass and products that I have. 

My goal is to continue adding these associates to my list when I am out on the run.  Especially now that the warmer weather is with us.  The products I have discovered and developed are a great adjunct to this business.  Because such associates always have specific buildings with specific problems that must be addressed in one way or another.  In the case of staining problems my goal is to identify the cause, the solution, and the prevention in a single visit.  Demonstrations of the repair always include proprietary products and tools.  As do inspections of scratched glass or first surface low e windows.  Or many other situations.  I think etched glass problems are the most interesting. I do not sell these products directly but can make sure you get samples and are able to buy what you need from the provider.  I am an independent consultant NOT including sales.  Never wanted to do this, and I never should.  But I can put anyone in contact with some amazing companies out there with some amazing products.  Or even amazing ingredients so you can blend or make your own proprietary products to enhance the services or products your company offers.  Window manufacturers might need a long lasting hydrophobe/oleophobe for their glass.  Whereas a window cleaner might want the same, or a scratch/blemish remover, or stain remover.  PRODUCTS (the best) will drive your company.  Whether that company is service oriented or product oriented.  Unfortunately product manufacturers usually have absolutely NO CLUE about the technology of how to use the products they sell.  Or that they should NOT even be selling them!  Only because they have no experience using them.  Also they are NOT consultants.

So the bottom line here is very simply I don't care who you are out there, just send me an email.  I will get in contact with you asap.  Then we can talk.  The first consult is always free.  Just tell me about your situation and I will do my very best to help.

Henry Grover Jr.

Glass Smart Consulting

henrygrover222@gmail.com

Searching for Consultants to Lead Our Industry

International Glass Smart Association

Over the last 45 years the surface of windows has become VERY scratch sensitive. It is defective.  What has happened is totally needless.  Many surfaces are also NOT even glass, but are very thin metallic coatings applied when the glass is still on the float bath.  We are NOT working with that old smooth glass of yesteryear.  

Coupled with these technical challenges is the fact that most people in every other related industry have NO clue about this.  General Contractors don't know anything about defective scratch sensitive glass surfaces.  Painters know nothing about this too.  Power washers don't know how quickly even pure water can leach minerals from certain building exteriors and create water spots in as little as thirty minutes.  Property maintenance managers have no clue that sprinkler systems can literally destroy millions in low level windows.  Lawyers are completely ignorant as to how quickly a 1 to 2 percent solution of HF acid will ripple out dark glass and cloud out clear glass.  Also and especially window cleaners have no clue how quickly so called restoration products based on "super-abrasives" can create thousands and millions in permanently damaged glass.  It is unfortunate that the window cleaning industry now includes very large corporate franchises that span the country from sea to sea.  Having given a seminar for one of them telephonically on this technology we discovered something at the end during the Q and A that is really counterproductive.  It surprises me that I even encouraged it at that time.  We learned that if a problem surface was revealed during the analysis of a potentially new job, the best and most safe thing to do would be to walk away.  So that the franchise would not incur a lawsuit of course.  But really that is NOT a foolproof method.  Owing to damage that could be revealed after a simple routing cleaning.  Which damage had been left by the previous window cleaner, or another professional during the construction of the building.

All of this explains why our industry NEEDS more consultants.  I have run into them out there.  They are not your average window cleaner.  Kind of like a family spread out around the world.  Some of these have companies of ten to twenty employees.  Others work alone.  All of them have learned by experience.  When I tell them I learned everything I know by wasting brand new glass, and reading books on chemistry and physics, they understand.  It is fascinating!  Just to name a couple.  I met Marc Tanner on FB one late night many years ago.  That was a two hour messenger conversation.  Nick Evans contacted me by phone from New Zealand.  We have done messenger, and Zoom.  He developed his own tech FB Group local to NZ and AU.  Both of these men are totally unbelievable.  I could mention others as well.  Simply said I have had a great deal of joy meeting them and exchanging ideas and knowledge.

Our industry needs people like this.  Which is what I would really like to do.  Find them and introduce them to you by means of this IGSA and this blog.  Also if the AWC is on board with this idea I would like to work with it too.

Please check out the latest July issue of the American Window Cleaner.  It is a fantastic issue of the past.  Many leaders have come and gone.  What we need now more than anything are consultants.  Send me an email so we can talk.

Henry Grover Jr.

henrygrover222@gmail.com

https://awcmag.com/