Toronto Casa | 147.52m | 46s | Cresford | a—A

glass

barit said:
I think glass is a bad material to face balconies with. Temperature fluctuations, bad glass and accidents will bedevil this building forever. Most fifties and sixties apartment building I have seen have had their glass balconies replaced long ago.
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Balconies seem to create a problem for window washing. In all of my previous buildings they were washed commerially, may be 4 times a year. I was just informed by Casa management that they are going to wash only the outside of the balconies, and that the owners have to wash all the windows, screens, dividers, and the inside railings of the balconies. (I guess one needs to wash the floor somehow as well). Depending on the size of the unit, it is a lot of work. I would really appreciate if they hired a company to wash all this glass on the balconies, deviders, and outside windows.

I also have periodic water dripping from the above, may be from plant watering or someone washing their balcony, leaving a residue on my balcony glass. I think it would be better to wash everything at the same time, at least after the end of the construction. Any thoughts?
 
I think it is quite common for windows only accessible from the balcony to be cleaned by the owner. I've lived in three condos and it was the same for each. My first condo had a full length balcony similar to Casa and I had to clean everything myself.
 
alenka said:
Balconies seem to create a problem for window washing. In all of my previous buildings they were washed commerially, may be 4 times a year. I was just informed by Casa management that they are going to wash only the outside of the balconies, and that the owners have to wash all the windows, screens, dividers, and the inside railings of the balconies. (I guess one needs to wash the floor somehow as well). Depending on the size of the unit, it is a lot of work. I would really appreciate if they hired a company to wash all this glass on the balconies, deviders, and outside windows.

I also have periodic water dripping from the above, may be from plant watering or someone washing their balcony, leaving a residue on my balcony glass. I think it would be better to wash everything at the same time, at least after the end of the construction. Any thoughts?
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I've never heard of window washers cleaning the inside of balcony glass. Windows in condos are usually only washed where accessible by the harness & rig system such as the exterior of balconies and window areas without obstructions.
 
alenka said:
the owners have to wash all the windows, screens, dividers, and the inside railings of the balconies. (I guess one needs to wash the floor somehow as well). Depending on the size of the unit, it is a lot of work. I would really appreciate if they hired a company to wash all this glass on the balconies, deviders, and outside windows.
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It is a bit of a work-out (but great exercise). You're lucky enough to be able to easily reach all of your glass without any effort so you never have to deal with waiting for management to come and wash your windows. I usually do all of mine (a corner unit) every 6-8 weeks or so. I usually split the job into 2 days over the weekend and do 30 minutes one day and 30 minutes the next. Now I can skip the gym.

If it's a matter of just being lazy or perhaps not very able-bodied or having a disability then there are plenty of companies you could hire.

As for the balcony floor... well... get a mop. It works great. (If the dirt is really deep, there's nothing to stop you from buying some paint the same colour and re-painting it. It'll look perfectly clean and brand new. You have to look at it every day so why wouldn't you make it perfect?

The outside of the balcony glass is a bit tricky and yes, they need to come and clean everyones (and scrape off all of the crap and paint the tradesmen flung everywhere).

However, I bought a flexible extra-wide cleaning pad with a long handle that I tied a rope to to make it very easy and safe for me to reach over the balcony and quickly clean all of the outside glass. When it rains and the glass is covered in water you can spray a little windex on the cleaning pad and clean the entire exterior balcony glass in about five minutes. It's very fast and easy if you do it in the rain. (The handle is tied around my wrist with the rope to prevent it from slipping out of my grip and killing someone below). Go to the mop/squeegee aisle at Canadian Tire and you'll see a few good options.

Living with all this glass is a bit of work every couple of months but once it's clean it looks spectacular.
 
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I heard from an owner of a Casa unit that the pool area is closed due to falling balcony glass.... Apparently event his balcony was covered in broken glass from a unit above him and it's a major issue. GOOOO CRESFORD!
 
WeirdFishes said:
I heard from an owner of a Casa unit that the pool area is closed due to falling balcony glass.... Apparently event his balcony was covered in broken glass from a unit above him and it's a major issue. GOOOO CRESFORD!
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It must be something inherent to aA designs. They seem to be the common factor.
 
WeirdFishes said:
I heard from an owner of a Casa unit that the pool area is closed due to falling balcony glass.... Apparently event his balcony was covered in broken glass from a unit above him and it's a major issue. GOOOO CRESFORD!
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I don't know if this is true or not. There were no problems this summer with balcony glass falling. It's an outdoor pool and they had suggested to me in September it would be closing thru the fall and winter months. They recently inspected all of the balconies, so odd there would be a problem here so quick after the inspection.
 
Thought I'd contribute a night shot
casa.jpg
 
The blue mezzanine in Casa's lobby needs both art on the wall and one more seating set. I'm all for minimalism, just not miserablism.

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JayBee said:
This and Spire are my two favorite glass towers. Not one thing I'd change.
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A drop-off/unloading area out front so that courier vans and cars don't have to park on the sidewalk blocking pedestrian traffic. Otherwise, perfecto
 
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