How Much Does Window Cleaning Cost?

Window cleaning is priced differently from most exterior work, and once you understand how, quoting your own house gets straightforward.

Our window cleaning is $8 per pane with a $200 minimum. That is the whole formula. What makes two houses of the same square footage land at very different numbers is not the size of the house. It is how many panes of glass are in it.

Pane count is the number that matters

A pane is a single piece of glass, not a window. That is where almost all of the price difference between houses comes from.

A modern double hung window with one large sheet of glass in the top sash and one in the bottom is two panes. The same opening in an antique house, with true divided light sash in a six over six pattern, is twelve panes. Six times the glass, and roughly six times the labor, because each small pane has four edges and four corners that get detailed by hand.

Run that across a whole house and the gap gets large. Ten modern double hungs is twenty panes, which puts that house at the $200 minimum. Ten six over six windows is one hundred and twenty panes, priced on pane count rather than the minimum. Neither is unusual around here.

Old New England homes have far more glass than they look like they do

Antique and colonial revival homes around the Quiet Corner commonly have six over six, nine over six, or twelve over twelve sash. A twelve over twelve is twenty four panes in one window. Every one of those panes has a muntin bar around it that holds water and dirt in the corners.

Simulated divided light is the modern version, where grids sit on the surface of the glass or between the panes. Surface applied grids still have to be worked around, so they take longer than plain glass, though not as long as true divided light. Grids sealed between the panes are the easiest of the three, since the outer surface is one flat sheet.

If you are not sure which you have, look at the edge of a grid bar from outside. Slide a fingernail under it and it is surface applied. Flush and continuous with the glass means it is between the panes.

What else moves the price

Storm windows

Exterior storms double the number of surfaces on every opening they cover. The storm has an outside and an inside, and the primary sash behind it has an outside and an inside. On a house with wood storms that come down, get cleaned, and go back up, this is the biggest add beyond pane count. Triple track aluminum is easier, since the panels slide within the frame, but the tracks collect grit and need clearing.

If your storms are removable, clean the glass before they go on for the winter or after they come off in the spring. Working around installed storms costs more and gives a worse result.

Screens

Screens have to come out for the interior side of the glass anyway, and a screen that has been in place all summer is holding pollen, dust, and cobweb. Cleaning them adds time. It also changes how the finished job looks, because a clean pane behind a filthy screen still reads as a dirty window from inside the room.

Height and access

Ground floor glass is quick. Upper story exteriors mean ladder work or a water fed pole, and either takes longer per pane. Anything over a deck, a porch roof, a garden bed, or a steep grade takes longer again, because the ladder has to be set safely first. A walkout basement on a sloped lot turns a two story house into a three story job on one elevation.

Inside and out, or outside only

Exterior only is the common choice in the spring and the cheaper of the two. Interior work adds the second surface of every pane, plus moving furniture, laying down drops, taking screens out, and putting everything back. Interior glass is also where the difference is most visible, since it is the surface you look through from three feet away.

Condition and how long it has been

Glass cleaned last season comes up quickly. Glass untouched in five years is a different job. Hard water spotting from a sprinkler head, mineral deposits from a well, paint specks, construction film after a renovation, and sap bonded on through a hot summer all take extra work and sometimes a separate treatment. If it has been a long time, say so when you ask for the quote rather than at the door.

Frames, sills, and tracks

Clean glass in a dirty frame looks half done. Wiping frames, sills, and tracks is part of doing it right, and it takes longer on old wood sash than on vinyl.

How often to have it done

Two natural windows exist in the year here, and most houses use one or both.

Spring. The obvious one. Winter leaves salt spray, road film, and the residue of five months of weather on the outside of the glass, and the low spring sun shows every bit of it. Spring is also when the storms come off, which is the easiest moment to reach the primary sash.

Fall. The underrated one. Once the heating season starts, the inside of the glass picks up dust and combustion film that you look through until spring. Cleaning the interior side in the fall, before the furnace or the woodstove has been running for months, buys you a clear view through the darkest part of the year. Fall is also before the storms go on, which again is the right moment.

Once a year is enough for a lot of houses. Twice, spring and fall, is what people with a lot of glass or a strong view tend to settle on. Storefronts and offices are a different question, covered in our commercial window cleaning guide.

Where windows fall in the order of work

Windows go after a house wash, never before. A wash puts detergent and runoff on the glass, and it will need doing again afterward no matter how carefully it is rinsed. If you are having the siding washed and the windows cleaned in the same season, book the wash first. The full sequence for a whole exterior is in our post on exterior house cleaning, and the seasonal version is in our fall exterior cleaning checklist.

The same is true of gutter cleaning, which sends debris and grime down the wall. Glass after that, ground level surfaces last.

What to send for a quote

A window quote is easy to give accurately if you send these.

• A photo of each elevation of the house, front, back, and both sides, taken far enough back to show every window
• A rough pane count if you can manage it, or just tell us the sash pattern, for example six over six or single pane
• Whether you want inside and out or exterior only
• Whether there are storm windows, and whether they are removable wood or triple track aluminum
• Whether you want screens cleaned
• Roughly how long since the last cleaning, and anything you already know is a problem, such as sprinkler spotting or paint specks
• Anything awkward to reach, such as glass over a porch roof, a deck, or a steep bank

Counting panes is less work than it sounds. Walk the outside of the house and count the individual pieces of glass in each window, then add them up. If a window is six over six, that is twelve. Multiply by $8 and you have your own estimate before you call anyone, subject to the $200 minimum.

Getting a number for your house

Applewood Exterior Cleaning is based in Pomfret and works across Northeast Connecticut, Worcester County in Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The rest of what we do for homes is on our residential services page, and if you are planning holiday lights on the same house it is worth reading when to book Christmas light installation before the fall fills up.

Text photos of your elevations to (860) 553-9326 and we will come back with a flat number, or send the details through our contact page.