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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.
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