Lead-Safe Cleaning Horizontal Window
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Lead-Safe Cleaning Horizontal Windows
Living in a house built before 1978 you have to think of cleaning in a slightly different way.
This is lead-safe cleaning of horizontal sliding windows paying close attention to the window trough. The window trough collects and holds lots of dirt and where children like to stick their fingers.
Before you start you want to gather your supplies. Start with a plastic garbage bag, plastic gloves, and some spray cleaner like Formula 409 or something similar or Dawn dishwashing liquid you’ll mix with water in a spray bottle. You could use a pressurized bottle sprayer, but this is a little over the top and a simply sprayer will do the job.
Lead-Safe Cleaning of Horizontal Windows
Next, you can use damp paper towels, generic or real Swiffer Wet mop pads. What you use here depends on how much money you want to spend. Paper towels may seem cheap, but you may use quite a few getting the window clean and Swiffers can be expensive. Either way, you can only use wet paper towels or Swiffers once and then you must throw them away. DO NOT reuse paper towels or Swiffers from one window to another. This could spread lead dust and contaminate each window.
Don’t use… I repeat, don’t ever use a wet cloth rag or towel. This is a big NO – NO. Again, this could spread lead dust and contaminate each window.
Start at the top and spray the channels and trough with the window closed. Spray the corners really well. You notice with a hard spray the dirt in the corners starts to lift away. Let the water soak in for a minute.
Start at the top and wipe out the window channels. Lastly, wipe the trough. Spray into the corner again and release as much of the leftover dirt as possible. Use a new towel or wet mop pad and wipe the window trough clean once again.
Now open the window and do the same thing. Spray the channels and trough from top to bottom and pay close attention to the corners. Wipe the trough using a new towel or wet mop pad wipe clean again.
After your done with one window, change your gloves, throw away all used paper towels or wet mop pads and start on the next window.
This could be a big job if you have a lot of windows. I like to break down the cleaning into smaller bits. Instead of thinking… wow, I have a lot of windows to do, I think… I will do a couple windows one week, then a couple more the next. Eventually, you will have all your windows done. Cleaning the window channels and troughs should be a normal part of your cleaning schedule. Once you have all the windows done, start from the beginning and clean a couple at a time. This takes a big job and breaks it down into much smaller bits.
I also like to say clean in one direction by scooping out the dirt. However, in the video, you'll notice I clean and scrub backward and forwards. The whole goal of the job is to clean out the trough really well so your children won't get their fingers into that window trough and ingest lead dust into their mouth and their bodies.
Get your children tested for lead poisoning by calling 1-800-424-LEAD or 1-800-424-5323