By Joe Heim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Drive past just about any big building in the Washington area, and there's a good chance that Hernando Melendez has washed its windows. Supreme Court? Yup. The Capitol? Yes. Dulles and Reagan airports? Indeed. And hundreds of others as well, most of which fall into the generic office building category.
Since 1988, the 40-year-old Salvadoran immigrant has dropped over roofs and down the sides of these buildings to wash away grime and goop and return the windows to their gleaming, confident selves. In blistering heat, bone-numbing cold and -- worst of all for window washers -- devilishly unpredictable wind, Melendez and his co-workers perform work that combines a relatively mundane custodial task with breathtaking daredevilry. After all, how many people start their workday by attaching two safety clips to a harness and rappelling down the side of a 20-story building?
We caught up with Melendez, a Greenbelt resident, on a recent chilly morning in Arlington's Crystal City, where he and his team from Kevco Building Services Inc. of Gaithersburg were hard at work.
Tell me about the first time you went out on a rope to clean windows.
Oh, man, my heart it was pumping, pumping. And when I looked down the first time, I thought, wow, the rope is going to break. People look up, and some think it looks easy, but it's not.
So you've been doing this for 19 years. Are you still scared when you're up there?
If you don't feel scared doing this job, you can make a mistake. We trust what we are doing, but we also have all of the respect in the world for this job. This is one of the most dangerous jobs, and you always have to be really awake. So far I haven't had any accidents. [Knocks on the wood table.] Safety is our number one concern.
Is this a job that you thought you would have as a kid?
Never in my life was I thinking this is what I'd be doing. No way, man. But when I moved here, my cous in was cleaning windows and he got me a job doing it, and so now I'm cleaning windows nearly 20 years.
Okay, on to the important questions. Have you ever seen anything you weren't supposed to see through the windows?
[Laughs.] Ah, no, not really. Sometimes at the hotels they don't pull the blinds and [laughs again] I think some people, they don't seem to care if you see them.
Do people inside the office ever wave or try to make you laugh?
Sometimes people make signs saying, "Thank you, guys" or "Good job." It makes us feel good and that we're doing the job right. Then, sometimes they tell us we missed a spot, and they point to it.
A number of times I've walked under buildings where window washers are working and I've had water splashed on me. Do you guys ever try and spray people below just for fun?
No! No, no. You know, it's probably just the wind. We have a lot of respect for our work and for people down below.
Do you have a special solution for washing windows, or is it just soap and water?
For inside windows, it is mostly just water and regular soap [Joy]. When we do the exterior, we use more ammonia to cut the dirt. And we use [surgical] towels to wipe the windows and get dirt off the edges.
Do people ever tell you they would want your job?
Sometimes when we finish, people ask us how much we make. And I say, $15 or $16 an hour, and they say, "Wow, are you crazy? I wouldn't do that for a million dollars." Some people are afraid of heights. This job is not for everyone. Would you want to do this job?
No way. I don't even like standing on a stepladder. What about your children ? You have three. What do they think of your job?
My 9-year-old thinks it's fun. He wants to do it. At home he takes rope and says, "Papi, show me how to climb." But I don't want him to do this job. I want him to go to school and do something different.
What about your wife?
Every time I go to work she tells me, "Take care of yourself. Be careful." She wants me to do something else, but I feel comfortable with this job. I really know the job, and I know what I'm doing.
Okay, this is a related question. Who cleans the windows at your home?
My wife! [Laughs.] It's true. She's always cleaning. She tells me, "I don't know why you clean 100 windows a day and you can't clean ours." But she's just playing with me.
What's the most important part of your job?
I work with the young guys. When people are new, they're still nervous. Part of my job is to get them to relax and tell them they're doing a good job. We talk about safety before we start every job. It's my responsibility to take care of these guys.
If you weren't a window washer, is there a job you'd really like to do?
I think about getting a license to drive one of those big trucks. When I was a kid, I wanted to learn how to fly an airplane. It's not too late, I think, but it's too expensive to learn.
Have you ever tried rock climbing?
No, that is too easy for us. [Laughs.]
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