Everything You Need to Know About High-Rise Window Cleaning

Skyscrapers form a majestic and essential part of many urban skylines. As the urban population of the world continues to grow, skyscrapers will be necessary to maximize vertical space.

In 1985, 2 billion people worldwide lived in cities. Today, over 55% of the world's population — about 4.4 billion people — live in urban areas. Projections show this proportion will rise to 70% of people living in cities by 2050. Unsurprisingly, projections also indicate that by 2050, the number of skyscrapers in the world will increase by a tremendous 41,000 buildings.

With their walls of sparkling glass windows, skyscrapers give the skyline an elegant look — but those windows don't stay sparkling on their own. Rain, snow, smog, salt spray, dust, debris, bird droppings and more conspire to obscure a skyscraper's windows. Fortunately, window cleaners are on the job to get them pristine and shiny once more.

High-Rise Window Cleaning FAQs

Here are some benefits of clean windows and answers to a few frequently asked questions about high-rise window cleaning:

How Often Do Commercial Windows Need to Be Cleaned?

The answer to this question depends on a few different factors. The type of business in the building, the environment around the building, how much foot traffic the building receives and whether people are allowed to smoke inside the building all contribute to the condition of a skyscraper's windows.

If a building is a clean, nonsmoking office environment and stands on a clean side street, it likely needs its windows cleaned less frequently. If the building is home to industrial work or a medical facility, sees a lot of foot traffic, is located on a busy street or near a substantial body of water or must contend with smog or frequent avian visitors, the windows will need attention more often.

Is High-Rise Window Cleaning Dangerous?

Dangling hundreds of feet in the air is definitely not for the faint of heart, but for any reputable high-rise window-cleaning company, safety is the primary concern. High-rise window cleaning is generally safe if workers use the right equipment and take proper precautions to protect themselves.

Fatalities in high-rise window cleaning are exceedingly rare. High-rise building window cleaners, as a class, see 1.5 million exposures — times when they are working on the side of a building — every year. Yet occupational fatalities remain low, typically about one or two per year.

How Much Do Skyscraper Window Cleaners Make?

How much do skyscraper window cleaners make? According to one estimate, a skyscraper window cleaner's salary generally ranges between $20 and $29 an hour, depending on the person's level of skill and years in the profession. These figures can vary, though. In a large, expensive city like New York, a skyscraper window cleaner can command a higher wage — dedicated cleaners there can earn an average salary of about $58,000. However, the people making these figures have generally spent years, even decades, honing their craft.

How Long Does It Take to Clean Skyscraper Windows?

The answer to this question, too, depends on a few different variables. How big the skyscraper is, how many windows it has and how dirty they are — all these factors can make a difference.

According to a veteran window cleaner interviewed in the New York Times, a standard 50-floor skyscraper would take 30 to 40 days to clean in its entirety. The Empire State Building, by contrast, with its 102 floors, takes six men about four months to clean — and once they're done, the window cleaners have to start all over again.

How Do You Clean High-Rise Windows?

Cleaning high-rise windows requires an in-depth and specialized process to reach every area of the building and ensure safety for workers. Here's an overview of the process:

Assessment and safety preparation: Cleaners will assess the building and surrounding areas to prepare for cleaning. As they do so, they will consider safety measures necessary for the job.

Equipment setup: Window washers use specialized equipment to work efficiently and achieve high-quality results. Before beginning work, they must set up the equipment so it is ready to use.

Cleaning: Once window washers have set up their equipment and prepared the building for cleaning, they will use various cleaning techniques and specialized equipment to clean the windows.

Final assessment: Once the job is complete, cleaners will inspect the windows to see that they are clean and streak-free. During this stage, they may also perform touch-ups to ensure a quality result.

High-Rise Window-Cleaning Equipment

High-rise window washing requires a number of different pieces of equipment — some for cleaning and some for climbing and safety.

Cleaning and Climbing Tools

Skyscraper window cleaners typically use the following cleaning tools in their work:

Bucket: The bucket of a skyscraper window cleaner usually contains water mixed with dish soap or hand soap. Sometimes, the window cleaner adds ammonia for heavy-duty jobs.

Glass scraper: The glass scraper is useful for removing caked-on dirt and grime from the windows.

Sponge or T-bar wand: Window cleaners use these tools for wetting the window with soapy water.

Squeegee: Window cleaners use squeegees to wipe the dirty water away and leave behind a clean, streak-free window.

Rags or towels: Rags and towels are useful for doing a quick final polish.

Spare blades: The metal and rubber blades of the scraper and squeegee wear down over time, so it's helpful to have some spares on hand.

Tool belt: A tool belt lets window cleaners have all the necessary tools within reach while keeping their hands free.

Tool lanyards: These devices attach to window cleaning tools, preventing them from falling to the ground while workers clean the windows.

Climbing Tools

Skyscraper window cleaners also use tools to navigate the exterior of the building, like:

Movable platform: Much like the fixed scaffolds used for shorter buildings, a high-rise window cleaning platform gives the window cleaner a stable place to stand while cleaning high-rise windows. But with a movable platform, when it's time to move down to the next floor, a pulley with ropes lowers the platform.

Bosun's chair: If window cleaners are not standing on a movable platform, they typically use a bosun's chair. The bosun's chair takes its name from seafaring. On a ship, the bosun, or boatswain, is the officer in charge of the crew and equipment, and a bosun's chair is a harness-like rope contraption that can suspend the bosun aloft to work on the ship's masts or rigging. In window cleaning, a bosun's chair is a small platform attached to a pulley that can lower it when the cleaner needs to descend to the next floor. Window cleaners can often suspend their buckets from hooks on the bottom of the bosun's chair, as well.

Beyond the platforms or chairs that skyscraper cleaners use, they need items like ropes to keep these tools in place. Window cleaners also use anchors and roof riggers, which sit on top of or secure to the roof and hold the ropes that suspend climbing tools.

Safety Tools

Since window cleaners' safety is paramount, skyscraper window cleaners use different safety tools as well, including:

Safety belt or harness: A window cleaner safety belt or harness is critical for window cleaners who are working on a platform. If the platform falls, the safety harness, which hooks to the building, ensures the window cleaner remains securely suspended in the air.

Helmet: Protective headwear allows window cleaners who work at heights to minimize the risk of injury in case an accident occurs during a job. They especially help prevent injuries from fallen objects.

Protective gloves: Window cleaning is a messy business, and rain and snow make it messier. Protective gloves are must-have items, especially in the winter when wet hands can quickly freeze. Cold hands can lead to frostbite, and they also make the window climber less nimble and safe.

Other safety tools include carabiners and descenders or grabs, which allow workers to move up and down the building surface smoothly.

Skyscraper Window-Cleaning Facts and Statistics

Here are some high-rise window-cleaning statistics and fun facts:

Statistically speaking, high-rise window cleaning is safer than driving a cab.

Window cleaning can be silent work. According to one report, when window cleaners are above the fortieth floor, the usual city sounds of voices and traffic disappear entirely.

Wind makes window cleaners' jobs much more difficult. For safety reasons, window cleaners must get off their scaffolding or platforms if the wind speed exceeds 25 miles per hour. Even winds of 15 miles per hour can cause serious difficulties.

Window cleaners use cool or lukewarm water — in the winter, hot water could break the glass.

If the windows of a skyscraper open, they will probably require more frequent cleaning because people on higher floors may dump out food products that stain the windows below. According to one report, this frequently happens at the Empire State Building, where occupants of higher floors have been known to dump out everything from coffee to gallons of strawberry preserves — the latter of which covered 10 stories of windows and froze solid.

Contact PSI for High-Rise Window Cleaning

The appearance of your building and windows reflects directly on the quality of your business. To keep your high-rise windows sparkling like new, contact PSI. Our high standards of safety, excellence and care make us one of the top high-rise specialists in the entire mid-Atlantic.

Our high-rise window-cleaning services will get your windows shiny and streak-free, and our teams of long-time, expert window washers have the tools to get the job done safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.