Pesky, persistent stickers on windows

My family recently built a new house. It has taken so much longer than what they had anticipated. The back and forth with contractors has put the project months over schedule.

As the project now rolls down to a close, the structure is finally up and fitted. One of the last tasks required is to move in the furniture. 

Cleaning up the house has been on our list for weeks. Anyone that has a list of projects will know that sometimes there are those annoyingly small, but seemingly unsolvable tasks that just take time to do a bit of research, figure out, and then set aside time to complete.

Removing the factory applied stickers has been one of those tasks.

What has made this task particularly annoying is that on a recent trip to the hardware store, we did purchase some trademark Goo Gone. When applying that or the Krud Kutter to the stickers, they didn’t seem to budge. Even when using a ProGrip 5-in-1 Glazier Knife the stickers just wouldn’t peel up.

In this whole building process, there has been a handy man that my family has contracted to shore up final projects. On a recent call, we asked him what his recommendation is for dealing with the stickers on the windows. He gave two recommendations: one was one of the name brand adhesive remover and the second was WD-40. 

As I heard his recommendations, I could sense that I was already a little resistant to the adhesive remover option. And the resistance was just too sticky for me to escape. So, I thought that I would give the WD-40 a try.

Given the trouble with my previous approach, I decided that my next process would be two fold. On one morning I went around the house with a can of WD-40, quickly and briefly spraying a streak on the top side of the stickers. The excess would bleed down across the sticker moistening the entire sticker.

Once I had done this, my next step was to wait. For at least a few hours, to see how effective this option was.

Later that evening I returned with the previously used glazier knife, starting at the edges as anyone might when trying to peel up a sticker with a knife.

To my surprise, the stickers peeled up with significantly more ease than before. I was really surprised. 

There were over 40 stickers. Many of them did not come off perfectly or cleanly. However, I soon discovered that after I had taken the front of the sticker, leaving the underlying paper and adhesive exposed, then I could apply just a bit of our Goo Gone using a paper towel which removed the remnants with ease.

If you are or know someone who in the future is trying to remove stickers from windows, WD-40 surprisingly does the trick!