From About This Project
Try washing windows with a squeegee and I bet you’ll never go back to a spray bottle and paper towels. Squeegees get your glass clear and streak free in a fraction of the time it takes with paper towels. In this article, we’ll show you the equipment you need and simple steps to follow for fast, clear results.
The keys to success are buying a good squeegee and keeping it fitted with a sharp, new rubber blade. The same high-quality window washing tools the pros use are readily available at home centers and full-service hardware stores. The whole setup costs less than $30 and will last many years. You’ll need a 10- or 12-in. squeegee ($6 to $12), a scrubber ($4 to $8), a bucket (a 5-gallon plastic bucket will work), hand dishwashing liquid (we recommend Dawn) and a few lint-free rags or small towels.
Buy a High-Quality Squeegee
Buy a good squeegee and replace the blade
frequently. There may be others, but you can’t go wrong buying a squeegee made
by Ettore, Pulex, Sorbo or Unger. Look for replacement blades ($2 or $3 each),
also called rubbers, where you buy the squeegee and pick up two or three to
have on hand. The pros we talked to change their squeegee blades as often as
once a day. That’s because you just can’t do a good job if the edge of the
blade becomes nicked, sliced or rounded over with use. If your squeegee leaves
streaks or just isn’t performing like new, don’t hesitate to replace the blade. You can get a little more mileage out of blades that aren’t
nicked or sliced by simply reversing them to expose a fresh edge. When you
store the squeegee, make sure nothing touches the blade.
You don’t need fancy buckets or special soap. Any large bucket will do. Just add a couple of gallons of water and about a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid and you’re ready to go. In warm weather, you’ll get a little more working time by using cool water. If you’ve procrastinated so long that you’re washing windows in below-freezing temps (I learned this the hard way), add windshield-washing solution until the water doesn’t freeze on the glass.
Scrubber or sponge? It’s up to you. A scrubber works great and is worth buying if you have a lot of medium to large panes of glass. But a good-quality sponge is all you really need, especially if most of your windowpanes are small.
Tips and Techniques
Our Squeegee Method Is Easy to
Master
Professional window cleaners sweep the
squeegee back and forth across the window in one continuous motion. But this
“fanning” technique takes practice to master. Instead, the method we show
allows you to get great results immediately. We’re moving the squeegee
horizontally across the glass, but vertical strokes
will work too. If you work vertically, angle the squeegee to direct excess
water toward the uncleaned area.
Touch Up With a Rag
If all goes well, a
quick run around the perimeter of the glass with a clean rag will finish the
job. If
you left a squeegee track, wait a few minutes until it dries. It will often
disappear. If not, you may be able to rub streaks away with a few light rubs
with the clean, dry rag. But don’t hesitate to simply redo the entire window.
By now you’re probably getting so good that it will only take a few seconds
anyway.
Yes, You Can Use a Squeegee Inside the House
Too
The pros do it all the
time, even in houses with stained and varnished woodwork. The key is to squeeze
most of the soapy water out of the scrubber to eliminate excessive dripping and
running. Then rest the scrubber on the edge of the bucket rather than dropping
it in the water after each window. Depending on how dirty your windows are, you
may be able to wash five or ten windows before rinsing the scrubber. Keep a rag
in your pocket to wipe the squeegee and quickly clean up soapy water that runs
onto the woodwork. Use a separate clean rag to wipe the perimeter of the glass. New “microfiber” rags work great for window cleaning. They’re available in the cleaning
section of some home centers and hardware stores.
Get your window sparkling clean in less than 30 seconds — just scrub, squeegee and wipe!
Tips for Hard-to-Clean Windows
Dried paint, sticky
labels, tree pitch and bug crud may not yield to plain soap and water. Here are
a few tips for removing this tough grime.
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Scrape wetted glass with a new, sharp razor blade to remove dried paint.
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Remove tree pitch or bug droppings with a fine (white) nylon scrub pad. Wet the glass first and rub in an inconspicuous area to make sure you’re not scratching the glass.
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Add 1/2 cup of ammonia per gallon of water to help remove greasy dirt.
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Loosen sticky residue left from labels or tape by soaking it with a specialty product like Goof Off. You’ll find Goof Off in the paint department at hardware stores and home centers. Then scrape off the residue with a razor blade.
Thank-you!!!!!