For years, people in the glass industry and the glass-cleaning business have debated the use of metal scrapers to clean windows, patio doors and curtain walls. One side says don’t use scrapers; the other says make flawless glass. Like the old Miller Lite commercials of “tastes great; less filling,” neither group will change its stance.

The primary issue is using the scrapers for removing construction waste at the end of a project. Most glass manufacturers, fabricators and contract glaziers say the metal scrapers can scratch the heat-treated glass that may have minute surface particles such as glass fines. Cleaners say the scrapers are the most efficient method of removing paint, caulk, concrete, dirt and other debris from glass.

“The issue is still outstanding from my point of view,” says Cliff Monroe, senior manufacturing specialist at Arch Aluminum and Glass Co., Tamarac, Fla. “They’re still cleaning glass with metal scrapers, and you don’t do that in the glass industry with any type of metal device.”

Monroe has been in the industry about 32 years and is the chairman of the Glass Association of North America’s tempering division. “You would think with the technology we have in this world today, and between the IWCA and the glass industry, we could come up with some other means or method to clean glass related to a construction site,” Monroe says.

The problem seems to be methods and also, as in many businesses, money. It takes more time, and thus more money, for window cleaners to clean without scrapers and then go back use a small blade to remove what’s left behind. It takes time and painstaking efforts for contractors to complete their jobs without getting any debris on the installed glass. When someone is putting a bid on the project, they are going to budget the most cost-effective way to clean up.

Glass manufacturers, who fastidiously clean and maintain the machines that make and clean the glass, cannot stop all surface particles that randomly develop as part of the heat-strengthening process.

“Using a scraper is the easiest, quickest and cheapest method to get the window clean,” says Sam Terry, the president of the International Window Cleaners Association, Kansas City, Mo. “The contractors are not willing to pay anything else. They don’t believe it’s an issue.” Terry also is the owner of Sparkling Clean Window Company in Austin, Texas.

GANA, Topeka, Kan., has issued an information bulletin, Proper Procedures for Cleaning Architectural Glass Products, that discusses the use of scrapers. It states: “One of the common mistakes made by non-glass trades people, including glass cleaning contractors, is their use of razor blades or other scrappers on a large portion of the glass surface. Using a 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-inch and larger blades to scrape a window clean carries a large probability for causing irreparable damage to glass. … When paint or other construction materials cannot be removed with normal cleaning procedures, a new 1-inch razor blade may need to be used only on non-coated glass surfaces. The razor blade should be used on small spots only. Scraping should be done in one direction only.” The document includes a list of “Do’s” and “Do not’s” that includes “Do not use scrappers of any size or type for cleaning glass.”

Next week read more about the issue of cleaning glass with metal scrapers.

--By Matt Slovick, Editor in chief, Glass Magazine

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