I have a problem caused by my painter and I’m hoping someone has a solution.
First, the problem. I have a screened porch on the back of my house with fiberglass screen panels and arched glass windows above. Because the space is obviously not conditioned, the windows are single-pane glass cut to size and installed by the guys who put in the screens. Above the windows are a roof and a white aluminum gutter.
About a week ago, I had my painter come paint the porch, which was showing some wear in my 10-year old home. The gutters were also very dirty; not clogged, but with thoses black streaks that aluminum gutters get on the outside. As part of the job, I told the painter to clean the outside of the gutters to give the whole porch a clean, finished look.
According to the painter, he went to Sherwin Williams and after explaining the application, was pointed toward a “yellow cleaner” that took the black streaks off the gutters with ease. (My painter’s English is not that good, and I spent the first conversation with him after discovering the problem wondering why he would use a “Jello” cleaner.)
Getting to the point- apparently the crew hosed off whatever chemical was put on the gutters and the diluted spray landed on the glass windows below the gutters. The windows are now stained and nothing I have tried can remove the stains. They look like that “rain glass” people use in shower enclosures, only more sloppy.
My question is simply this; how do I get rid of the stains? I’m hopeful he didn’t use some sort of solvent that actually etched the glass and ruined it. I can’t imagine a solvent that strong being sold at Sherwin Williams as an aluminum gutter cleaner, but I confess to being uninformed in this area.
Please advise.
Replies
Have you tried scraping the glass with a glass scraper. There are some more specialized ones, but a nice one is a just a single edge razor in a plastic holder.
If that does not work then find out what the product was that he got from SW.
Then check the label.
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Sometime the most obvious answers are the hardest to find.
I tried to clean the glass using nearly every solvent I could find around the house and scoured until my fingers hurt; but nothing worked. Yesterday I got a razor knife and without too much effort, the stains came off. I'm still not sure what my painter used, but the windows are clean.
Thanks for the tip.
you hold his money till its clean
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Know BOB, Know Peace
Had a painter working beside me this week and he was using Krud cutter(sp). Took off those pesky streaks like nothing. He said he got it at Lowes.
Did you call S-W and ask what to use to remove their jello cleaner from window glass?
He was probably sold Naval Jelly. Next time hire a painter who speaks English!!!
Sounds like his problem.
He should clean/fix/replace the windows.
I have a really off the wall question - how much does your painter charge / did you pay him?
I'd start with SW also and find out what he used on my house.
Then I'd post here and look for a solution.
If a single edge razor blade doesn't take the "stain" off then he probably etched the glass, in which case you won't fix it.
Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
Start by finding pout what a yellow cleaner is.
Find the empty container
or call the SW store to see what they might have sold somebody with poor english who wanted to clean AL gutters.
Then read the product informaton to see what he did wrong. it was probably that hewas supposed to protect or wet down anything that ws not intended to be 'cleaned'
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I'll make a few guesses here:
1) You got the cheapest guy you could find;
2) He was not licensed, bonded, etc.;
3) There was a significant language problem; and,
4) yellow = jello = jelly, as in Naval Jelly.
Naval Jelly is a solution of phosphoric acid. Generally a mild acid, it does have one quirk: it attacks glass as will nothing else. If naval jelly was used, you're screwed.
Some bargain.
Another word for 'contract' is 'agreement.' It is, by definition, impossible to have an agreement with someone who does not understand your language. Think about this the next time you conduct any business with a person you cannot understand. As the OP found out, this can lead to expensive errors.
Likewise, there are reasons for our laws. Such a situation is why there are licensing and bonding requirements. When you circumvent the law, you deny yourself these protections.
"Naval Jelly is a solution of phosphoric acid. Generally a mild acid, it does have one quirk: it attacks glass as will nothing else."You were doing fine up to this point, but phosphoric acid does not attack glass. In fact it is sold for laboratory use in glass bottles.Hydrofluoric acid is the only one that etches glass.BruceT
I beg to differ. Indeed, the lab solutions come in noticeably different types of bottles than the other acids. But ... academics aside ... a simple scrape with a razor blade across the glass will reveal whether the glass is dirty ... or etched. If it's etched, the OP is SOL.
No argument there.
BruceT
It looks like strong phosphoric acid will etch certain types of glass and not others -- it will etch soda glass. I bet that glass windows are not made from labaratory grade glass.
http://www.udel.edu/chem/GlassShop/PhysicalProperties.htm
It looks like it has a pH from 1.5 to 2.5, which is pretty acidic. I don't know how easily it will etch glass, though.
Billy
I had a similar problem caused by a wood siding brightener that contained phosphoric acid. I went to a glass shop and got a glass polish that took the stains right off. Works great on the soap/ mineral stains on the shower glass too.
-Rich