The traditional glasshouse cleaning business is in serious decline. Everybody says so. Well, UK traditional glasshouse cleaning and maintenance companies say so.
It seems the simpler days of spraying one or other of the cleaning solutions available on a glasshouse and power-hosing it down are fast coming to an end, if they haven’t already vanished, particularly for the larger sites. And disgruntled UK glass maintenance companies talk darkly about teams of Dutch contractors imported at regular intervals to usurp their previous roles.
Many factors contribute to the decline. Among them, the Health & Safety regulations place ever greater responsibilities on nursery owners and cleaning contractors in what is potentially a very dangerous task. Investment is required in more training and better equipment. Frustration mounts if the correct weather conditions are not available - HSE guidance includes performing cleaning tasks in overcast conditions, but not in the rain or when it is too sunny or too snowy or icy or any number of other things.
What UK maintenance teams there are left also have fewer nurseries from which to garner clients. And the bigger nurseries with newer glass tend more towards contracting the cleaning duties to the Dutch who have the manpower - manpower lacking in the UK - and who have invested in the most up-to-date equipment to get the job done to the highest and most exacting modern specifications.
Businesses that have supplied cleaning services for years now find the work harder and harder to come across. Nigel Wehrle, of M&M Construction, South Yorkshire, admits his company still cleans the old-fashioned way by spraying on the chemicals and power-hosing it off. For many of the reasons cited above he adds that, like others in his line of business that offer glasshouse maintenance and building services, it is a diminishing aspect of his business.
Ken Forden, managing director of The Building Works, West Sussex, echoes many of Nigel Wehrle’s sentiments. His company builds and maintains glasshouses. He said the big nurseries have the Dutch come in to clean the glass - hardly a surprise when you find there is a shortage of labour in the UK glasshouse industry to do these jobs. Specialist equipment is needed to brave the gutters, which, of course, ups the costs.
So, what about the future? Consultant John Adlam, of Dove Associates, Norfolk, says one far from new innovation which went a little out of fashion seems to be making a comeback - the automated roof cleaner. Although price rules out the smaller nurseries using new automated roof cleaning technology on a regular basis, at least one machine seems to be making something of a splash.
Roofmaster, sometimes known by the Dutch name Rotowas, was introduced to the UK around 15 years ago. It enjoyed a brief period of popularity before the enthusiasm ebbed a little. But Brinkman’s Tim Wilson says that popularity appears to be surging once again.
The reasons? Many allied to those mentioned above. Glasshouse construction sees gutters getting narrower and roofs getting higher. Stringent health and safety standards make clambering around on inch-wide gutters something of a liability. That allied to the fact that glasshouses, mainly of the Venlo construction, are getting higher, with larger panes of glass meaning the dangers are manifold.
Wilson reckons there could be anything up to 11 or so of the Brinkman versions of these cleaners in use around the UK. “Others have brought them out,” he said. “But they seem to have disappeared.”
The cost for one of the machines, built by Besseling & ALL Techniek, the Netherlands, can range from £30,000 to £50,000, including necessary peripheral equipment.
No wonder, then, that the majority of users call in contractors. Although he says the larger growers are starting to buy them for themselves.
However, the cost can be rationalised. Higher light transmission from cleaner glass increases production. The machines can clean acres of glass in a day and do it more often than an expensive human workforce. And with humans being what they are, health and safety mistakes can be very costly.
Besseling’s Roofmaster is produced in contractor, semi-automatic and full-automatic models. The standard type of Roofmaster is suited for cleaning Venlo greenhouses with widths of 3.20m, 4m, 4.27m 4.80m and 5m.
When using the contractor model Roofmaster, the machine is hoisted onto the deck with a crane. On the deck the machine is operated manually. After the start signal, the machine cleans until it reaches the end of the deck. With the aid of double reverse switches, which are activated by the end stops on the other side of the deck, the machine returns to the dock while cleaning the deck. After finishing, the machine is then transported manually to the next section with the aid of the rail-system on the side of the greenhouse.
The semi-automatic model Roofmaster is also hoisted onto the deck with the aid of a crane. There is a permanent rail-system on the front side of the greenhouse on which the Roofmaster moves from section to section with the aid of the moving dock. After giving the start-signal manually, the machine will continue cleaning the deck until the whole deck is cleaned, or until the machine is stopped manually, according to the company.
The fully-automatic Roofmaster can be operated by the climate-computer in the greenhouse. Prior to operating, the operating variables are entered into a computer. These specify factors such as when the machine will start. Further options are, for instance, optimal inside/outside temperature, wind-speed, maximum-washing time and maximal opening of the air vents.
Automated systems are one way to go. But imagine if you had minimal or no cleaning needs in the first place. John Adlam spoke at Contact 2007 about one product making a buzz in the industry - F-Clean, from the Japanese company Asahi Glass Greentech Co. Ltd.
F-Clean, described by XL Horticulture’s Les Lane as a sort of ‘thick cellophane’, is a film for use in glasshouses. It has a low surface energy giving it a non-stick characteristic. This leads to what the manufacturers describe as ‘self-cleaning’ properties. Asahi says snow will slide off the surface by itself; dust and sand are removed by wind or rainfall.
F-Clean is an Ethylene-Tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE) film used as a covering material for glasshouses. It has high tensile strength compared with other plastic films and is claimed to have a light transmission level exceeding 90 percent. The manufacturers also claim low degradation from sunlight and heat which provides a ‘useful’ lifetime of more than 10 years.
Asahi says the product has a melting point of 260C, a decomposition temperature of 360C, and a continuous service temperature of 150-180C.
The company also says its accelerated weather resistance testing have shown that F-Clean displays practically no signs of ageing after the equivalent of 29 years in the sun.
Technology in the ever-more specialist and investment-heavy area of glasshouse production moves on apace. The above are just a couple of examples of ways in which growers can try and shave a little more money off their long-term maintenance bills. But to save that money you must have lots of money to invest in the first place - F-Clean, for instance, is said to multiple your costs initially, being far more expensive than glass. Ultimately, the pursuit of success and survival in the glasshouse sector seems to rely more and more on the depth of a grower’s pockets.
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