Today I cleaned the inside of both the groundfloor windows at the front of the house. The larger panes of glass are about 4'6" square.

I cleaned them with a wet Spontex cloth, soaked with kitchen cleaner containing bleach, to remove sticky marks and any grease, (fly droppings, fly squash, finger marks, fly spray etc), then wiped over with a wet J-cloth, before drying and polishing with a clean tea-towel.

When I had finished, the glass shone and there were no marks.

Within an hour, smears were showing and it now looks awful.

So....what did I do wrong, or what did I NOT do that I SHOULD have done?

I suppose the marks COULD be lime-related: we live in a VERY hard water area, and they LOOK whitish, so I could TRY wiping over with a cloth soaked in vinegar and polishing again?

What does the collective wisdom of Scoobynet, less SS, think?

 

Clean with white vinegar, (I use Tesco own brand), and polish with newspaper if you're having problems with scale marks on windows.

Nilglass is the best glass cleaner and polish I have found for afterwards, (if they aren't gleaming enough for you - though newspaper usually works well), or if scale isn't a problem.

A good steam cleaner and a decent squeegee works well too and has the added benefit of not leaving any sort of deposits on the glass which could later hold onto dirt. (It works for carpet cleaning too - carpet shampoo can leave a residue on the carpet that causes the dirt to adhere more and the carpets get dirty again more quickly afterwards)

Meths is also good for streak-free shine on windows but won't help much with scale and will damage paint, varnish, some plastics etc. It's good as a pre-cleaning treatment for windscreens though - just don't get it on the paintwork, seals or anywhere else!

 

Dry them using newspaper.

 

With your chosen cleaner clean one side with vertical strokes the other with horizontal. Makes finding missed bits/streaks easier to deal with.

 

Ungers in a bucket of hot water. Wash.

White vinegar in a bucket of cool water. Rinse.

Squeegee/Aquablade.

Coarse E-Cloth.

Fine E-Cloth.


That'll get them as perfect as you'll ever need. Spontex sponges and J-Cloths don't clean windows well at all.

 

What 'e said. E-Cloth or newspaper.

We have a man to do the outsides.

 

It's what they're best at. Physical labour with not too much thinking involved.

 

I've now got that blasted George Formby song whizzing round and round in my head!

Aaarrrggghhhhhhhh!

 

Oh thanks.....I have too now

What's "E-cloths"?

 

E-cloth - Perfect cleaning with just water

Available in all good supermarkets and John Lewis.

 

use a cloth, dont lick em,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

£3.50 every 2 weeks to our long time window cleaner mate - seriously.

 

And he does the INSIDES too?

 

Only when Nats in and I'm at work funnily enough

 

Forget what that lot said,get yourself to your local glass merchants and buy some proper glass cleaner,use a decent cloth or even a good kitchen roll,and dont do it when the sun is shining on that window

 

Keep any cloth away from glass if you want a smear free job. Use an Washer and squeegee

Squeegees & Washers - Window Cleaning Products from Ettore

Then cloth the excess water off the frames and ledges with a scrim

 

Use autoglym fast glass and paper towels

 

Ungers Liquid is used by more professional window cleaners than any other product.


But you keep going

 

Great until the sun starts shining. Might be ok in Middlesbrough then...

 

Anyone use Rain-X after to keep them cleaner for longer?

 

No because if the rain has dust in it, the windows will look dirtier sooner if they're Rain-X'd. It's only useful in applications where water is continually on the move.


I know far too much about this

 

"..........if the rain has dust in it.......".

In Scun thorpe? Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha..
More like, "the dust has some rain in it today"

 

"Cleaning large windows: what am I doing wrong?"

It's woman's work,

Runs and hides !

LOL

dunx

 

You could try some proper glass polish, the type that a valeter would use?


I stupidly bought a glass dining table, looked awesome in the shop, looks complete **** in the home, it is a total nightmare and seams to constantly spawn finger prints.

I HATE it, i just can never seam to win with it, if the table is used for anything, it ends up covered in marks

I have had to restrict my cleaning regime on it as it just pisses me off every day, instead i tend to clean in on a monday and a friday with loads of vinegar based glass cleaner spray and a fresh microfibre cloth, but i am never happy with the end result, its just a total ****!

The only way it ever seams to look perfect, is if i remove the table top, and use valeters glass polish on both sides, then refit (refit with feckin gloves on so you don't get finger prints ffs)