Window Cleaning

Nothing changes how a home feels from inside faster than clean glass — and nowhere does glass get dirty faster than the Eastern Suburbs. Salt haze off the ocean, traffic film, hard-water spotting from sprinklers and the general coastal grime combine into a dull layer most owners stop seeing until it’s gone.

Why coastal glass needs more than a squeegee

Salt is the difference. Within a few streets of the water, a fine salt film redeposits on glass continuously. Left long enough it doesn’t just haze — it etches, and etched glass can’t be polished back by cleaning. The same salt pits stainless window hardware and corrodes aluminium frames at the joints. Regular window cleaning near the coast is protective maintenance for the whole window assembly, not just a cosmetic job.

How we clean

Purified water-fed poles for exterior glass: deionised water scrubs and rinses the pane, then dries spot-free because there’s nothing dissolved in it to leave behind. No detergent residue means salt and dust have nothing to grip, so the glass stays cleaner longer. Poles reach second and third-storey glass safely from the ground — no ladders against your gutters, no boots on your roof.

Traditional squeegee work where it does a better job: ground-floor glass, framed internal panes, and detail work around leadlight and heritage windows.

Frames, sills, tracks and flyscreens are included as standard. A clean pane sitting in a grimy frame is half a job.

What we clean

Homes from single-storey cottages to three-storey coastal builds, glass balustrades and pool fencing (the other great salt victim), skylights, louvres, shopfronts and commercial frontages, and strata common glass — lobbies, stairwells and entry doors — with documentation for building managers.

How often

Oceanfront and clifftop homes: quarterly keeps glass genuinely clear and protects the hardware. Most Eastern Suburbs homes: two to four times a year. Inland: twice a year is usually plenty. Window cleaning also pairs efficiently with a house soft wash — the glass is the finishing touch that makes the whole exterior read as clean.

Window cleaning questions

What is water-fed pole cleaning and why is it better outside?

The water is run through a filter that strips out every dissolved mineral, leaving it chemically pure. Pure water is unstable in that state and aggressively pulls dirt off the glass, then evaporates leaving nothing behind — no minerals, no detergent, so no spotting and no film for salt to grip onto. That is why pole-cleaned glass stays clear longer than squeegee-cleaned glass in a coastal environment. It also reaches upper storeys from the ground, which removes the ladder entirely from the job.

Can etched or stained glass be restored?

Sometimes, and it depends what caused it. Hard-water spotting from sprinklers or a leaking gutter is mineral deposit sitting on the surface and usually responds to a restoration treatment. Salt etching and concrete splatter from nearby building work are different — both remove material from the glass itself, and no cleaning brings that back. We can usually tell which you have by feel: if you can catch a fingernail on the marking it is in the glass rather than on it. That is why regular cleaning on oceanfront glass is worth more than it looks.

Do you clean inside as well as outside?

Yes, and interior glass is done traditionally with squeegee and cloth rather than poles — it needs the control and there is no salt film to fight. Interior work does need someone home for access, so it is usually scheduled together with the exterior in one visit. Around leadlight and heritage joinery, which the Federation and Victorian housing through Woollahra and Paddington has a lot of, we work by hand entirely.

Are flyscreens and tracks included?

As standard, yes. Screens are removed, washed and refitted, and tracks and sills are cleaned out. Leaving them is a false economy — a screen full of salt and dust redeposits onto the glass the first time the wind blows, and grit sitting in a track is what eventually wears out the rollers on a sliding door. If a screen is perished to the point where washing will tear it, we will show you rather than damage it.

Why does my pool fencing look worse than my windows?

Because it is unprotected on both faces, sits closer to chlorinated splash, and nobody cleans it. Frameless glass pool fencing takes salt on the outside and chlorine mist on the inside, and the stainless spigots holding it are the first thing to show corrosion in a coastal position. It responds well to the same treatment as the windows and, on most properties near the water, needs it more often.

Is it worth cleaning windows before selling?

It is one of the cheapest things on the pre-sale list and one of the most visible in photography. Hazy glass reads as a tired house in listing images and dulls the light in every internal shot, which is exactly what buyers respond to. Booked alongside a pre-sale exterior clean it is usually the last job done before the photographer arrives, for obvious reasons.