R614-6-2. Window Cleaning

A. General.

1. It shall be the responsibility of the employer to provide such safety devices and equipment as required by this rule. He shall be responsible for the proper use and maintenance of such equipment and devices.

2. It shall be the responsibility of the employee to wear and employ the devices so provided as directed and to assist in its reasonable care and maintenance.

3. Only employees who have been adequately trained and instructed shall be permitted to clean windows where the use of anchors, safety harnesses, swinging scaffolds, boatswains' chairs, tackle or other similar equipment is required.

B. Ladders-scaffolds.

1. Ladders shall not be used to clean windows whose top is more than 36 feet above the floor of adjoining ground or a flat roof or which are so placed or obstructed as to make the method unsafe. Built-up scaffolds are preferred over ladders.

2. The use of ladders with hooks attached, to be hung on or over a parapet wall or other projection, are prohibited in window cleaning.

C. Windows.

1. Windows which are of such type that both the inside and the outside of the window may be cleaned from the inside, if over 10 feet to the top of the window on the outside must be cleaned from the inside of the building.

2. Windows whose top is over 36 feet above ground, floor or flat roof, and which are of the type that cannot be cleaned from the inside must be provided with window anchors, or shall be cleaned only by use of swinging or built-up scaffolds or boatswains' chairs or other satisfactory method providing equal safety.

3. When window anchors are used, they shall meet the requirements of ANSI Standard A39.1-1969 and shall be inspected and maintained in a safe manner. No window cleaner shall use an anchor which he finds to be loose or insecure.

4. When working from a suspended scaffold or boatswain's chair, the employee shall wear an approved safety harness and shall be tied off to a line supported from a separate roof anchorage to the ground which must be separate from the rest of the rigging. The fall line shall be provided with an approved automatic locking device.

D. Equipment.

1. Extension tools shall not be over 6 feet long. A cleaner using a brush or squeegee on a pole shall attach it to his person by a wristloop, or other device to prevent dropping. Each extension device so used shall have a locking device to prevent inadvertent detachment of the brush or squeegee.

2. Brushes, buckets, squeegees, and other equipment used by a cleaner working on a scaffold or boatswains' chair shall be fastened to equipment at the moment when not in actual use in the hand of the cleaner.

3. When cleaning windows, special care shall be used where electrical supply lines present a hazard.

4. Window jacks and all other platform devices fastened to window sills for a cleaner to stand upon outside of the window without standard harnesses and anchors are prohibited.

5. Ropes used in windows, cleaning operations shall be inspected before being used and shall be discarded if unsafe.