A day in the life of a window washer

Erick Soulard weilds normal brushes and soap as he hangs off the sides of buildings to wash the windows.

If you're interested in a job as a window washer, it helps to get used to climbing things.

For example, Erick Soulard said he was always climbing trees as a kid.

"Now, I like to climb windows and sides of buildings to get my job done," he said.

Armed with Sunlight soap and a normal scrub brush, Soulard said he works from either a platform (called a stage) or a harness called a bosun's chair.

He and his brother Rob are the third generation of Soulards to do the job.

"My dad showed me . . . how to clean a window back then and I knew what I wanted to be – a window cleaner," said Erick, who said he had wanted to do this since he was six. "I just love it."

The tallest building Erick and Rob have worked on was 35 storeys, but Rob said one of his scariest encounters had nothing to do with the building he was working on – he was attacked by a Peregrine falcon.

"It was actually in its nest and got off the nest, swooped back at me," he said. "It had the babies and basically just kept swooping until I got off the top of the building."

The job of a window washer can also hold surprises of another kind – what's going on behind the windows you scrub.

"Unfortunately, I can't share what I see through the windows," he said. "That's for me to know and you to find out!"

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Norman Fetterley