Halifax Company Uses Drone To Wash Windows
HALIFAX–Washing windows on the outside of your house is an irritating, yet relatively easy task. But for high-rise buildings, it has always been difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. It’s also risky for the people willing to be up dozens of stories as window washers.
But a new Halifax company is using drone technology to make the task safer, quicker, and less expensive.
KTV Working Drone, as the name suggests, uses a remote-controlled drone, carrying a special hose, instead of a person, to wash all those windows.
The company is owned by Ashley (Ash) Phillips and Clayton and Bill Hardman of the Hardman Group. The Hardman Group has a long history of helping build major landmarks in Atlantic Canada. They have their fingerprints on Scotia Square, Avalon Mall, and the Mic Mac Mall.
Phillips and the Hardmans discovered this new drone technology, initially, as consumers. They were having a heck of a time cleaning the windows of a large building they owned on Duckworth Street in St. John’s The process of washing the windows was tying up other activities in the building, proving to be an inefficient method. And if anything went wrong with equipment, it would just eat up more time.
“So, it all has to be shut down for weeks and weeks and weeks,” said Phillips. “And we paid a fortune.”
That is, until they learned about a Norwegian inventor, Kennet Nilsson, who designed the working drone and, before they knew it, they were entrepreneurs in the working drone industry.
“We were trying lots of different things to get our windows clean. And then we were online and we saw this presentation from a gentleman in Norway. He’s been working on it for 10 years and he just got it all sorted out,” recalled Phillips.
“He said ‘I’m looking to franchise across the world.’ So, we jumped on the plane the next week [to Norway]. We called him right away and jumped on a plane.”
The three Halifax men got the franchise rights for Canada and the USA last November. They just launched their Halifax operations earlier in July. So far, they’ve already done a dozen window washing jobs.
On July 24, a team of four (including two drone pilots) were on Clyde Street washing the windows of The Mary Ann building. Onlookers, of course, were curious by the sight of a working drone.
“People love it. They’re stopping to take videos, high-fiving on the sidewalks. Everything’s going good,” said Phillips.
Phillips claims using KTV will cost building owners 30 per cent less compared to traditional window washing methods. On top of that, it will be much faster as well.
“We can move in and out with this product and just clean the place up,” says Phillips. “We are five-to-10 times faster. It means your building is not tied up as long.”
But even though they can do the job quickly, KTV says their cleaning solution will make it a quality job as well.
“We use a special system of pure water, a type of nozzle, and we heat the water to 80 degrees Celsius. And the results speak for themselves,” boasted Phillips.
KTV is also safety conscious. Even while doing his interview with Huddle, Phillips was making sure passersby were aware of the hose so they wouldn’t trip over it.
“I’m actually standing here, moving traffic while we’re talking. We believe in ultra safety and I’m making sure that everybody’s safe just walking along the sidewalk. And we have two pilots that work a job. They rotate so that they’re each fresh and ready to go.”
KTV has already sold franchises for four Canadian cities. They plan a quick expansion across Canada and into the USA.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].