The challenge of cleaning the windows of Burj Khalifa

The job of cleaning windows is a tricky work and if it is the world's tallest building, the job is even more difficult. Burj Khalifa in Dubai, rising 2717 ft into the sky and having about 1,292,500 sq ft of the glass creates a real challenge for the window cleaning companies. Mr Dale Harding, the general manager of Cox Gomyl, a window cleaning firm informed that their company's hi tech equipments are worth £5million that includes window-cleaning carousels which his firm has designed to give the best look to Burj Khalifa.

There were twelve machines that weighed 13 tons that were capable to hold about 36 window cleaners. Washing the 24,830 reflective windows of Burj Khalifa is an elaborate process in which ordinary soapy water is used taking almost three months to complete the job. There are equipments specifically designed to clean the windows of this structure. The cleaners stand on these equipments that come out from a number of cavities in the building tracking along rails covering its curved towers.

Mr Harding informed that the company that is based in Melbourne has been working very hard to make Burj sparkling for the extravagant opening ceremony going to take place on Monday. He told that the cleaning job of the iconic structure was a great challenge and the architects had great expectations. Commenting about the tight deadlines the builders had to face a few months prior to the completion of skyscraper's construction, he said it was certainly a superb construction standing too high, probably equivalent to 10 to 15 conventional buildings.

It was an extremely fine construction, but there was a spectacular blunder just a few months before its opening ceremony, which about 6000 people attended. Samsung Besix Arabtec Joint Venture, the builder of Burj Khalifa had to take the help of brave Mick Flaherty, when they realized that they had totally forgotten to put lights at the tip of the burj. It took the 35-year old Mick Flaherty and the firm he worked in, Total Solutions Middle East almost a month to work on the building's pre-fabricated spire before it was officially inaugurated. Mike's daily job involved getting to the 160th floor by first taking five lifts and then further going up seven tiers on straight ladders before finally squeezing into the spire that was barely 6 ft in width.

It was indeed a hard and extremely brave effort on the part of Mick, yet it was a breathtaking moment watching the building from so high up in the sky. As he said later, it felt like he could view the entire world from there the moment he reached up the ladders and opened its door seeing only vast blue sly around him and even feeling closer to the sun. He rated this experience as the highest point of his career, trembling with fear even after doing similar jobs in his profession for about 9 years.

The correction of this spectacular mistake took almost a month from beginning of last August. The task was so dangerous and tiring that the team of workers who were involved in it, nicknamed themselves as the 'Men of Steel'. The job was extremely tiring because the workers had to climb up and down the ladders the entire day. There was a platform where they could eat their lunch, but the closest toilet or water supply was too far off from where they were working. It was a stupendous job that is set to get into the Guinness book of records as the highest ever rope access work finished.

G. Foley is a writer who authors for blogs about a lot of matters. To discover more on window cleaners canberra just go here