• Window cleaners use harnesses to clean high windows.extreme windows cleaners sage gateshead image by laurent dambies from Fotolia.com
  
  Commercial window cleaners may work in a variety of conditions and face a diverse range of challenges. To help in their tasks, window cleaners choose from an array of general and specialized tools. While there are many types of tools used in commercial window cleaning, they all fall into three categories: physical cleaning devices, reach extenders and the basic liquid cleaning solutions.
  
  

Liquid Glass Cleaner

• Glass cleaning solutions are abundantly available from both residential and commercial retailers and are packaged in spray bottles, aerosol cans and as pills that dissolve in water. The primary ingredient in glass cleaners is water, followed by ammonia, alcohol and other additives such as dyes, soaps and perfumes. Some glass cleaners are marketed as earth-friendly, containing only all-natural ingredients. The primary cleaning agents in glass cleaners are the ammonia and the water itself, while the alcohol is added to promote fast evaporation to reduce streaking.
  
  

Scrapers, Wipes and Squeegees

• For dust and light dirt, liquid cleaner removed with a wipe (or a towel or rag) is adequate. For more efficient cleaning of larger windows, a squeegee is used to cover more surface area in less time. The edges of a squeegee can cause streaks as they move across the surface of a window, but this can be avoided by wiping the squeegee dry after every pass. When stickers, decals and other difficult objects are firmly affixed to glass, they are removed first by pressing a scraper between the glass and the offending material, then working the scraper slowly under the sticker or decal until it has pulled away from the window. The towel or rag is then used to remove any adhesive residue.
  
  

Water Fed Poles, Scaffolding and Harnesses

• For high windows, hollow poles extend the cleaner's reach and feed water or cleaning solution to parts of windows normally beyond the cleaner's reach. Poles are also used to extend the reach of squeegees and wipes, which remove excess water from glass surfaces at difficult heights. Stationary scaffolding is useful for cleaning high windows that require detailed attention or finesse unattainable with poles. Movable scaffolding and hanging harnesses are used by commercial window cleaners to reach large numbers of very high windows, such as those on skyscrapers, where stationary scaffolding is inconvenient or impossible to use.