Windows get sick? Health care has been big news lately, but how much do you know about sick windows? When windowpanes get dirty, window cleaners come to the rescue with their assortment of squeegees, ladders, lifts, power wands and an arsenal of special tools and cleaning agents.

But some windows are more than just dirty. No matter what kind of cleaning solution or tool or technique is used, there are some windows that refuse to come clean. They just seem to sit there and laugh at you, like hypochondriacs, enjoying their maladies. Moisture between panes is one of the reasons for cloudy windows. Others could include: condensation, saturation of silica desiccant material, solar pumping, poor caulking, failed window seals – or a combination of some or all of those. No matter how good you are at cleaning a window, when those ‘diseases’ crop up, it’s time to call in the medics of the window world.

It’s the type of nightmare scenario that no window cleaner wants to imagine. And yet, it’s a danger window cleaners assume every time they leave for work. Most window cleaners are familiar with a well-known industry factoid: that a person who falls just five stories hits the ground just as hard as a person who falls from an airplane without a parachute. So while many window cleaners are lucky to escape with a broken bone or two, it’s no surprise that 70 percent of window cleaning accidents are fatal, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The widespread publicity of recent window cleaning accidents, such as the December 2007 tragedy in New York City that claimed the life of 30-year old Edgar Moreno, has certainly brought more attention to the topic of safety in our industry. And yet, accidents are still bound to happen – whether they are due to unsafe practices, faulty equipment, or simply the result of unavoidable misfortune. The best any window cleaner can do, it would seem, is to over-prepare. Over-prepare to avoid an accident at all costs, but also (and just as important), over-prepare in the event that an accident does happen....

One day in 1983, Mark Reinhart and five fellow janitorial employees of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel took a unique test atop the 30-story glass tower in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The six had been brought to the roof by the hotel’s maintenance man as candidates to become part of the exterior window cleaning crew. They were instructed to stand in line, one behind the other and walk one by one to the edge and look down to the street 300 feet below. In doing so, they were told to say how they felt. Four said they were not bothered by the height at all and could do the job. Reinhart was slow in walking to the edge. Once there, he exclaimed, “It gives me the willies!” Another had the same reaction. The maintenance man picked those two for the job. “After sending the four others downstairs to rejoin the housekeeping staff, he said they were not chosen because they had no fear. “If you’re afraid, you’re going to check, double check and triple check to make sure every thing is in place before you go over the edge,” he told Reinhart and his co-worker. After some training, they were soon riding the hotel’s suspended scaffold, also known as a motorized rig, platform or swing stage...