George Allaria cleans a window on the second floor of a large house on Hamilton Road south of Chehalis on Wednesday morning. Allaria has owned Bob's Janitorial for 30 years and cleans windows over 300 houses and businesses in the area.
George Allaria carries a ladder to the back of a residential client's home in order to get the the second floor of the house on Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
George Allaria carries a ladder to the back of a residential client's home on Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
George Allaria, owner of Bob’s Janitorial Services, said his business’s name is somewhat of a misnomer.
“It’s Bob’s Janitorial but my name’s George and we don’t do janitorial,” he said.
When Allaria bought the business in 1986, its name was already established in the community.
“It was pretty well known so I decided to keep it,” he said.
In recent years, he said he’s been trying to transition to The Window Guy, because that’s what most people call him when he shows up for a job.
“When I walk into my accounts, (they) say, ‘The window guy’s here,’” he said.
Allaria is celebrating his 30th anniversary of being in business this month, but at 60, he is thinking about retirement.
“It’s hard,” he said. “I’ve been trying to find someone to take it over for the past year. It’s a physically demanding job. I start at 2 in the morning a lot of times. It’s rain or snow.”
Retirement is what drew Allaria, originally from New Jersey, to Lewis County in the first place, he said.
“I came out here in ’84 and I bought my property to retire on 30 years later,” he said.
At the time, Allaria was a diesel mechanic, but he said the chemicals he was exposed to made him sick and he was forced to find a new career. He came out to his property near Mossyrock and bought Bob’s Janitorial Services.
“I had never washed a window in my life,” he said. “I didn’t even know what a squeegee was.”
Allaria is the only employee, but he has had other employees in the past. Being able to set his own schedule has allowed him to travel around the world, including India, Peru, China, Tibet and Egypt.
Next, he plans to go to South Africa.
“It’s been a great business,” he said. “It’s allowed me to meet a lot of people and its given me freedom.”
While the business once did broader janitorial work, today Allaria focuses entirely on window cleaning. He has about 100 commercial accounts and 250 to 300 private accounts, he said.
“I do a lot of high end houses,” he said. “A lot of my house accounts have been with me well over 20 years. A lot of people treat me like family because they’ve known me so long.”
Allaria’s customers often leave keys for him so he can work during the day when they’re at work. They’ve built up a trusting relationship over the years, he said.
“They know me personally,” he said. “Most of my house accounts want to see me. They don’t want to see strangers … My business is built on respect and trust.”
Commercial jobs tend to come and go more often as business change ownership, start up or go out of business, he said. In his 30 years in Lewis County, Allaria said he has cleaned the windows at the Centralia Factory Outlets, many fast food restaurants, city halls and car dealerships.
On particularly tall buildings Allaria rents a lift to get to high windows or uses a hose from the ground pumping de-ionized water, which dries without leaving streaks.
However, Allaria said he rarely uses that technology.
“I’m still the old school,” he said. “I like to be up close.”
