Living On The Edge

I’ve been living on the edge for over 20 years. You can’t beat the view.

With somewhere around 30,000 hours hanging on ropes, high up off buildings in Seattle and Tacoma, I have a different daily view than most, but it’s one of the things I love most about my work.

The best sunrise I have seen was from the top of the Hotel Murano in Tacoma - 30 floors up above this great, clean, art-filled city. Lots of good sunrises and several good 12' under hanging drops make this one of our favorite buildings we take care of.

The Iconic Seattle Public Library is one of my most favorite buildings that I have ever been on. Before I had my own business, I had the privilege of cleaning the SPL for the very first time, with another really good window cleaner. Together, we did a great job and helped set up how they are cleaning it still today. Hanging from all different angles was a great challenge. Which is what I love about this job. I love the challenge of figuring out how to get to difficult places and clean things that really need it.

I’ve also cleaned the FBI building downtown Seattle. While I was only in the building to get to the roof and pressure wash the exterior walls, I like to tell people I worked for the FBI and see their reaction. I am glad I was able to clear their background check. Always a little nervous when the Government looks into you, even when you know there is nothing wrong for them to find.

Luma Condominiums is a 25-story building in Capitol Hill with a 14' under hang. Working your way under a big deck and re-anchoring under that deck to go down 20 more stories is great fun.

The tallest building I have been on is the 1111 3rd ave building in Seattle. Standing at 454' people look like ants and cars look like hot wheels. I have been on several other 40-story buildings, but this one takes the win. I have been on this building when the wind picked up suddenly. It felt like 40mph - I think it was only 25mph. We are not supposed to work on ropes when the wind hits 30 mph. We packed it up and went home. If I recall right, I saw a bat clinging for his life to the side of that building, somewhere around the 30th floor. Not sure if he was really just taking a nap or if he was scared. But, I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

The Tacoma Convention Center is what I like to call the biggest “jungle gym.” All kinds of climbing around there to do, inside and out.

I was trying to figure out how may windows I have cleaned, and it has to be in the high hundreds of thousands, if not more than 1 million. And, I am sure I have cleaned some of the same pieces of glass a few 100 times.

All that said, I’m still living on the edge and loving it. 20 years in, I still enjoy working with people that really care about their buildings. My team and I still take pride in our work, and we crave a good challenge and a chance to show what we can do.