# How do window washer belts work (how do they move from place to place)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566 "2019-11-17T05:11:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/1 "2019-11-17T05:11:21Z")
Old Empire State Building pics: > **[Empire State Building daredevil photos will give you vertigo](https://mashable.com/archive/empire-state-building-vertigo)** > > Empire State Building daredevil photos will give you vertigo More recent pic of washer using belt (bottom of page): > **[This Is How I Became a Window Washer of Skyscrapers](https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/how-i-became-a-window-washer-of-skyscrapers)** > > "That high, you just have to hold on extra tight—I have my legs wrapped around things and my arms, too" I was washing the movie “Q: The Winged Serpent,” and the first scene involves a guy on a belt washing the Empire State Building. This movie is from 1982, so apparently this method was still used there until around that time. What’s not clear is how the guy got to that particular window in order to strap to the bolts. There are no scaffolds. Then, how does he move to the next window? He seems to be stranded at that particular window. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/2 "2019-11-17T13:23:12Z")
Isn’t the platform attached to winches, that pull it up the height of the building? I assume he got on near the bottom. Or at least, at some ledge partway up. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/3 "2019-11-17T13:35:50Z")
Referring to the first Empire State Building photo. They open the window, step onto the sill, hook into the bolts. Then close the window and clean it. Open the window, step in, move to the next window. No platforms back in those days. I’ve witnessed it done on other buildings. Born in '46 ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/4 "2019-11-17T19:37:28Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Referring to the first Empire State Building photo. > > They open the window, step onto the sill, hook into the bolts. Then close the window and clean it. Open the window, step in, move to the next window. > > No platforms back in those days. I’ve witnessed it done on other buildings. > > Born in '46 I looked at those pictures and that never occurred to me. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/5 "2019-11-17T20:52:08Z")
> [@steatopygia](#): > > I looked at those pictures and that never occurred to me. :smack: Modern skyscrapers don’t let you open windows, except maybe on the very lowest floors. I was surprised that the ESB allows that. So that wouldn’t have occured to me either. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/6 "2019-11-18T03:38:21Z")
Thanks for the insight. In the movie “Q,” a window washer is creeping on a woman who is working in an office, and she says to someone on the phone something like, “He just came back to wash my window again.” So I was fooled a bit. I didn’t know that he would have had to go into her office, open the window, and then wash. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/7 "2019-11-18T18:40:07Z")
Not related to the window washing belts question, but about those window washers - they are wearing caps - why? Those hats wouldn’t seem to offer any protection from items dropped from above like hard hats would (one guy’s wearing a brim-less sailor type cap, which wouldn’t even keep water droplets out of his eyes), and I am not even seeing chip straps or equivalent - so these caps might well go flying in a breeze, which could well muck things up 40 or more stories down. Maybe it “was the style at the time” in an Abe Simpson way, but it seems to me such caps should be dispensed with if they offer no protection (much like old shop books from the pre WWII era cautioned - do not wear long ties when using powered machine shop tools). ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/8 "2019-11-19T14:28:28Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Modern skyscrapers don’t let you open windows, except maybe on the very lowest floors. I was surprised that the ESB allows that. So that wouldn’t have occured to me either. Don’t forget that the ESB was completed in 1936. The windows in the photo appear to be metal framed double hung units, so at least the lower sash would be able to be opened. And how did you imagine they dumped out all the paper for the Ticker Tape Parades? Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-window-washer-belts-work-how-do-they-move-from-place-to-place/843566/9 "2019-11-19T14:32:39Z")
I realise this is GQ, and what follows is only really MPSIMS, if that, but on looking at those photos, my balls tried to go back inside me