Cleaners In The Sky

HOW do you keep the world's tallest twin-buildings gleaming bright and clean in the Malaysian sky? Very carefully.
It is 7am. The morning air is crisp despite the more than a hint of haze. Bakhtiar Ahmad and Shahriman Alwi crank open the stainless steel panels on the 88th floor of Tower 2 of the Petronas Twin Towers.
They are in the circular "mechanical room" on the floor that is directly below the pinnacle. Here, the walls are moveable panels, sections of which the two men roll aside to unfurl an awesome panorama of the cityscape that few are privileged to enjoy.
White hard hats on their heads and harnesses around their waists, they however take little notice of the view as they go about manoeuvring two gondolas hanging from either side of the arm of a huge crane which is riveted to the the floor.
The crane's arm extends in opposite directions out of the room and into the open, to dangle the two gondolas more than 400 metres above the ground.
"I may not have much education, but I definitely work in high places," quips Shahriman, a 26-year-old Form Four dropout who hails from Kelantan.
With 65,000 sq metres of stainless steel cladding and 77,000 sq metres of vision glass, the external maintenance of the 452m-tall towers - designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates of the US - must be a nightmare of a job.
Yet, the total of 32,000 glass panes, from pavement to peak, surely represent the pinnacle of the window-cleaning business, the contracts for which have gone to Rotol AMS Bumi Technologies Sdn Bhd for Tower 1, and RM Top Holdings Sdn Bhd for Tower 2.
Bakhtiar and Shahriman, employees of RM Top, work in a four-man team, two to a gondola. They have with them three pails of water and one of detergent, a squeegee and a wiper each, and curiously, pieces of "Good Morning" towels.
Between them, they clean 50 "curtain wall units" a day, Bakhtiar says, and are paid RM10 per unit, or RM250 each for a day's work.
Reasonable remuneration? Well, the hazards aside, one unit comprises two stainless steel sunshades (also called teardrops), one laminated vision glass and painted frame, two stainless steel bullnoses, one ceramic frit spandrel glass, one Sheffield linen-finished stainless steel panel, eight PVDF painted support brackets, structural silicone, glazing gasket and a louvre. Yes, all have to be hand-cleaned.
Then again, it's a steady job. There are 14,873 wall units per tower, not including the 56 units on each pinnacle, 302 units at the Sky Bridge and support columns, and 950 units at the podium facade.
If getting on a swaying gondola high above the city frazzles you, banish all thoughts about trying out for Bakhtiar's job.
Twice a year, he scales the pinnacle of Tower 2 and abseils 73.9m down to its base. A four-sided stainless steel spire, a stainless steel ball ring and 144 units of Sheffield linen-finished stainless steel make up each of the twin needle points that pierce the sky.
There is no gondola from which to clean them.
"Kita abseil," Bakhtiar tells intrepid photographer May, who has joined him and Shahriman in the gondola, hanging from the 85th floor.
There are altogether 11 gondolas permanently stationed at the two towers, five at Tower 1 and six at Tower 2. Besides the two in use this morning, the others at Tower 2 are located at the 44th floor (one unit), 40th floor (one unit each at the "Under Sky Bridge" and "Below Sky Bridge") and one at 43th floor ("Sky Bridge top").
It's by no means "kacang" (peanuts), as Achenese Bakhtiar pushes the envelop on the berani mati (dare to die) attitude.
In any case, his wife and child back home in Indonesia are depending on him.
Bakhtiar says he accesses the base of the pinnacle via a ladder from the 88th floor. He climbs a cat ladder which takes him to the top, where he will secure a rope to a bullring from which to abseil down.
"Pertama kali? Tu lapan tahun dulu, (First time? It was eight years ago).
"Takut kak, tapi apa boleh buat, kerja saya. Company bagi training (Scared, but what to do, it's my job. Company gave training)," he says, laughing.
"I used to work with a jeweler in Kelantan but when I came to KL, I applied for a job to wash windows, only I didn't know I was to wash the windows of the KLCC towers," Shahriman joins in.
"We cover eight floors a day," he says as he suds the glass pane with his squeegee, rinses it with clean water and wipes it dry before going on to work on the panels.
Building manager KLCC Urus Harta Sdn Bhd is very strict on how the curtain wall units are cleaned. "We are very specific as to what they use in the cleaning process and how they do it," says Mohd Ghazali Mohd Rashid, the operation and maintenance executive of Tower 1 and Special Areas.
The two contractors are given a detailed list of dos and don'ts. All surfaces are to be washed with a neutral detergent and scrubbed with a soft 3M nylon pad. Scrubbing must be done in the direction of the grain of the surfaces, which is vertical. Drying is with soft lint-free cloth (which explains the "Good Morning" towels).
The cleaners have also to remove excess silicone glue or gum on the glass surface, if any, with scrapers. They also undertake inspection of the curtain wall units and have to report all abnormalities to the building manager.
The towers' glass panes are not "self-cleaning". Some skyscrapers elsewhere use panes that have a special coating to absorb sun's ultra-violet rays for the purpose of detaching dirt from the surface, which is then washed away, by rain.
Ghazali says the towers' glass panes are manufactured by Malaysian Sheet Glass and are of varying thicknesses.
Each tower takes five months to clean, which is undertaken twice a year.
Cleaning hours are from 7am to 11pm for the towers, and 7am to 6pm for the
skybridge and columns, the Suria KLCC links, and the podium. That for the frontage area is from 10pm to 6am.
The hot sun is not a problem but when it rains or if winds build up, the KLCC Urus Harta safety officers and RM Top supervisor have to decide if a stop-work order will be issued. The contractors, who have been given a work schedule for up to April 2007, also must ensure that the equipment used are approved, and constantly checked. Obviously, no one takes safety for granted in the business.
For this visit to the 88th floor, the KLCC Urus Harta safety officers and a member of its emergency response team were present all the time.
We also had to attend a 45-minute safety briefing the day before which covered emergency evacuation procedures. Those contracted to work in the KLCC premises have to attend the same compulsory briefing every six months.
The emergency procedures allow for the two towers to be evacuated within 31 minutes. It takes only about 90 seconds by the utility lift to get from P1 (Parking Level 1 at the Suria KLCC side) - where the building manager of Petronas Twin Tower 2, Raj Dorairajah, has his office - to the top of the tower.
The cables for the gondolas on the 88th floor of both Tower 1 and Tower 2 are long enough to lower them down to the ground, but Raj says that this mode of transportation has never been used to date.