Window Cleaning in Virginia

Exteriors: every 4-8 weeks on a regular round keeps glass consistently clear; quarterly is the practical minimum in cities or near trees and coasts. Interiors need cleaning 2-4 times a year in most homes. Homes near the sea (salt), busy roads (film) or construction (dust) need shorter cycles.

Ground-floor glass, absolutely DIY-able with a squeegee and practice. The calculus changes with height: ladder falls are one of the most common serious home-DIY accidents, and upper-floor windows take a pro with a water-fed pole minutes from the ground. Most households that hire do it for the upper floors and the consistency of a schedule, not because the skill is exotic.

A regular exterior round on an average house: 20-40 minutes. A first clean or full inside-and-out with frames, sills and tracks: 2-4 hours depending on window count. Window count drives everything — count your panes before calling and quotes get much more accurate.

Ordinary cleaning won't remove etched mineral staining from sprinklers, leaking gutters or years of run-off — it needs dedicated hard-water removal products or fine polishing, priced as a restoration add-on per pane. Test one window first: if staining has etched into the glass, no chemical fixes it fully. Fix the water source (gutter, sprinkler aim) or the stains return.

A telescopic pole with a brush head fed by purified water — the cleaner scrubs from the ground and rinses with deionised water that dries without spots, so no detergent and no ladder. It's now the standard for residential exteriors in many countries, reaches 3-4 storeys safely, and cleans frames as part of the process. Traditional squeegee work remains standard for interiors and gives a slightly more polished finish on ground-floor glass.

Demand peaks in spring and before year-end holidays, and those slots book out first. The work itself runs year-round in most climates — pure water works in cold weather down to around freezing, and professionals add glycol or adjust hours in frost. If you want a new regular slot, off-peak (mid-winter, mid-summer) is when good rounds have openings.

A standard home's windows run roughly R350-R1,100 per visit depending on size and whether burglar bars complicate access, with hourly equivalents around R100-R250. Metro prices (Johannesburg, Cape Town) sit at the top; many households fold interior glass into their regular domestic cleaning instead.

Yes, meaningfully — bars and security screens mean cleaning glass through and behind obstructions, often removing and refitting screens, which can double the time per window. Quotes that don't ask about bars will grow on site. Count barred vs unbarred windows before requesting prices.