Window Cleaning near you

Two quotes for the same house can describe very different visits. Decide what you want included before you compare numbers, because screens and tracks are the line items companies most often leave out and later charge for.

Anything above a stepladder is a different trade. The federal fall protection trigger in construction work is 6 feet above a lower level, and the standard names guardrail systems, safety net systems and personal fall arrest systems as the ways to meet it. Portable ladders carry their own rules: they must be used only for the purpose for which they were designed, used only on stable and level surfaces unless secured against accidental displacement, inspected by a competent person for visible defects on a periodic basis and after any occurrence that could affect safe use, and never loaded beyond the maximum intended load. The top or top step of a stepladder is not a step. None of this is obscure, and a crew that argues with it on your driveway is telling you something useful.

Electricity is the hazard homeowners forget. The ladder standard requires nonconductive side rails where the employee or the ladder could contact exposed energized electrical equipment, which is the whole argument against an aluminum extension ladder set near the service drop running from the pole to your house. On multi-story buildings the rules go further again: where window cleaners work from a rope descent system, OSHA requires the building owner to inform the employer in writing that the owner has identified, tested, certified and maintained each anchorage so it is capable of supporting at least 5,000 pounds in any direction for each employee attached, based on an annual inspection by a qualified person and certification at least every 10 years. If you own or sit on the board of a condominium, that letter is your obligation, not the contractor's.

Because these are employer duties, the practical question for a homeowner is simple and rarely asked: does the company carry workers' compensation coverage for the people it sends, and general liability for the ladder that goes through your siding. Ask for certificates and confirm them with the insurer named on them rather than with the person holding the ladder.

The most common complaint after a window cleaning is that some windows still look bad. Usually they do, and usually the cleaner is not at fault: the glass has been damaged or deposited on, and that is a restoration or replacement question rather than a cleaning one. A good company identifies these before the visit and prices them separately, or tells you honestly that they cannot be fixed.

The default American rhythm is twice a year, once after the spring pollen and once after the fall leaves, but the calendar that matters is your own climate. In the Southeast, heavy spring pollen makes an early-spring cleaning look pointless within days, so it is usually worth waiting until the drop is over. Along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, salt film and storm debris set the schedule. In the desert Southwest, dust and monsoon rain spotting drive it. In the Pacific Northwest, the north and shaded elevations grow a green film that the sunny sides never get.

Cold changes what is possible rather than what is desirable. Exterior washing in freezing weather requires solutions and methods suited to it, and many companies simply stop exterior work for part of the winter in northern states and shift to interiors, which is a sensible time to have them done. If you are selling a house or hosting something, book well ahead of the date rather than in the week of it, because clear weather and a free crew rarely coincide on short notice.

Window cleaning is priced by count and by access, not by square footage of house. The variables that move a US quote are the number of panes rather than the number of openings, how many are divided into small lights by grids or true muntins, how many stories and whether upper windows can be reached with a pole or need ladder work, whether screens and tracks are included, whether storm windows have to be disassembled, landscaping and decks that keep a ladder from being set safely, and whether the job is a routine clean or post-construction. Ask each company to state the pane count it used, and the two bids become comparable immediately.

LokalMatch is where the search starts. You describe the house once: roughly how many windows, how many stories, whether you want inside and out, whether screens and tracks are part of it, and anything unusual such as skylights or a stairwell wall of glass. Window cleaning companies serving your area receive that request and the interested ones contact you directly. Pros pay for the requests they receive, and homeowners use the service free. LokalMatch does not clean windows, does not set or negotiate prices, and does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so checking insurance, workers' compensation coverage and the written inclusions is still yours to do.