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Posted By Ian Stone
Here at the College we have a tower block of 7 floors. our Estates dept employ window cleaners to do the windows. they used to have a cradle but that was taken out of service a few years ago. At the moment they use long poles for the lower floors but I have been asked to sort out them cleaning the higher levels. One idea is to put eyebolts in each classroom so they can attach themselves, with over70 classrooms this isnt practical.
Anyone out there got any other ideas?
Many Thanks
Ian
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
Ian
It might be costly but it is certainly practical to do it. If you haveopening windows then it is the best solution
Bob
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Posted By Ken Taylor
I have seen abseiling used as an option but would not want to encourage it. If they can fall out of the window when cleaning from inside they will need the anchorages. We have hundreds of them in our schools.
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Posted By Gareth Bryan
We have anchor points on all of our windows (in a large office complex) BUT they only work IF the window cleaners use proper harneses, etc. as opposed to a bit of rope attached to the belt that holds their trousers up !!
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Posted By Ian Stone
Have passed all your helpful comments on to our Estates manager, one question:
How often do you check your anchor points and who would do it?
With regard to harnesses, would we be responsible to follow the cleaners around to make sure they are using them, when approached they were not keen.
Looking at your comments, I think these anchor points are the answer, just have to convince the managers that!!
Thanks
Ian
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Posted By John Donaldson
We have 6 residential tower blocks ranging between 14 and 16 floors on Campus.
For the last 2 years the windows have been cleaned by a specialist window cleaning company who use rope access systems i.e. abseiling.
All of the operatives hold Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) certificates at the appropriate level. There is always an operative present who is trained in rescue techniques.
This has proved very successful and incident free. This system has now been extended to a number of other buildings on Campus.
Anchor points are fitted at roof level and are subject to inspection by an approved independent contractor.
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Posted By Ken Taylor
You will find that the specialist company that installs the anchor bolts (and issues the original test certificate) will also offer you an inspection and test service with frequency of visual inspection and percentage of bolts tested per visit. It's important to be able to relate tested bolts to paper certificates and 'halo' cards around the bolts are sometimes used for identification.
I didn't mean to appear to 'knock' abseiling (and we do engage in this in our schools) but I am apprehensive about what might happen if things go wrong in window cleaning and ensuing liability - particularly having seen some examples of poor health and safety performance. I suspect that this will be more relevant to modern buildings with good roof access than our variety of buildings (some of antiquity) with a range of roof detail and potential obstructions.
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Posted By Luke Dam
Here in Australia, it is very common for abseilers to clean hi-rise windows.
To do this, they must be "Twin Rope" accreditted by a provider approved by our safety authority, Worksafe.
For your anchor points and other height safety solutions, look at Latchways in the UK (Not sure where exactly). Have a good look at their "Pushlock" device- have used it here and found it to be brilliant!
http://www.latchways.com/
Also try Industrial Rope Access Trade Association, they're in Surrey. http://www.irata.org
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Posted By Ian Stone
Many thanks for all the tips and comments, I have now been able to present a reasonable case to management. Watch this space!!
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