Are you an architect or consultant who may be involved in the building access equipment profession and would like more information regarding the ANSI/IWCA I-14 Window Cleaning Safety Standard ?

You’ve come to the right place. The International Window Cleaning Association is your resource for the most up-to-date safety standards and other regulations.

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If  you're in the business of designing buildings, or systems and equipment which will be used for building access and maintenance, the I-14 Standard is the perfect document to reference to see how the most widely used pieces of building access equipment can be operated safely and effectively to perform routine maintenance as well as more involved renovations or repairs.

Over the last fifty years, the window cleaning industry has been the model for many other building maintenance trades to follow.  Window cleaning takes place at a commercial facilities more than any other type of building maintenance.  So it is not unusual for other trades to want to use the same equipment as the window cleaning contractor.  

The I-14 Standard references permanently installed equipment as well as equipment that a contractor may bring onsite.  Additionally, the Standard mentions specific inspection and testing criteria when it comes to suspended equipment anchorage points and also guides the reader to other safety standards for fall protection and building maintenance equipment like powered platforms, and travelling ladders and gantries.

It would be prudent for architects and consultants to review and follow the I-14 Standard so that their customers will have the opportunity to own a building which helps to create a safe place to work for outside contractors who may have to work on or from all roof levels or other areas where fall protection and proper rigging of suspended or elevated equipment are an issue.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been enforcing the I-14 Standard as it would any other OSHA regulation, so in effect, it has become the law.  Since its publication in 2001, OSHA has issued over 81 citations to window cleaning contractors because they were not following the requirements of the I-14 Standard.   If a  building was designed and constructed without specific safety features for window cleaning and building maintenance, the owner of that building may be forced into the predicament of not being able to maintain the building because anyone attempting to do so would be cited by OSHA.

The most important benefit of referencing the I-14 Standard is to save lives.  Statistics will show that the majority of all high rise building maintenance and window cleaning accidents are the direct result of users rigging lines, safety lines and tie back lines to objects on the roof that were not capable of handling the loads.  Following the Standard eliminates the guesswork on behalf of the contractors.