Male worker in overalls professional repair the windows in high-rise

As skyscrapers keep rising in San Francisco and around the Bay Area, demand for window washers is going through the roof, according to an article on the San Francisco Chronicle website. Tech company buildings, such as Apple’s spaceship campus, the Salesforce Tower and Facebook’s new 43-story San Francisco office — are increasingly seeking out glass exteriors, as workers demand light-filled offices.

And as glass got stronger and glare-reducing techniques improved over the past decade, glass buildings became more common. A glass exterior can reduce the need for artificial lighting, cuts electricity costs and accentuates the view.

This is good news for building service contractors looking to diversify into window cleaning. Tech companies have a lot of money and want “a nice environment and nice views,” Eric Huber, president of Capital Building Maintenance, said in the article. Tenants also expect that the building is being taken care of. And that means business for window cleaners.

A full clean of the Salesforce Tower, for instance, will cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Sales of window cleaning services at Huber’s South San Francisco firm have risen 15 percent from January to May compared with a year earlier — partly a result, Huber said, of the increase in office buildings.

Since 2012, office space in the Bay Area has grown by 13 percent — with 33.6 million square feet added and 40 projects totaling 12.9 million square feet still under construction, according to CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm.

Read the full article.