We clean every window inside and out

Tracks get cleaned before the glass does

Every window gets washed from the top down, so any drip lands on glass that has not been done yet. Before any water goes on, dust comes off the frame and sill with a dry brush and the tracks get vacuumed. If you wash first, that dust turns to mud and runs into the corners. It dries there as a gray line along the bottom of the pane.

The glass gets a cleaning solution, then a squeegee pulled in overlapping passes, and the blade gets wiped clean between passes. Then the edges. A squeegee leaves a thin line of water where the glass meets the frame. If nobody wipes that line with a cloth, it runs and dries as a drip mark. You notice it most in the late afternoon, when low sun comes through the glass and lights up every streak.

Last, the sills and tracks get a second wipe, because the wash water always finds its way down there. When it is done well, the window slides open without grit grinding in the track. Nothing shows on the glass when you look at it from an angle. We use eco-friendly, non-toxic products for the whole job, which matters on a sill where a cat sleeps or a kid leans.

• Glass washed inside and out on every window
• Tracks vacuumed before any water goes on
• Frames and sills wiped down by hand
• Edges wiped dry with a cloth
• Eco-friendly, non-toxic cleaning products throughout

Massachusetts weather leaves a film on glass

Around Canton, pollen is the mess people notice most. Oak and pine put out a yellow dust in late spring that settles on every outside pane. The first rain turns it into a sticky film. Wiping it dry with a paper towel just smears it around. It needs water and a proper wash, and the screens need the same treatment or the next breeze blows it right back onto clean glass.

Winter does two things to a window. Outside, the lower panes on the street side pick up a gray haze of road salt and sand thrown up by passing cars and plows. Inside, warm air meets cold glass and water beads on the bottom rail every morning. Leave that water sitting and it leads to mildew spots on wood sills and black specks in the corners of vinyl frames.

That is why timing matters here. Outside glass should not be washed in deep cold, because the water freezes on the pane before a squeegee can pull it off. You end up with ice streaks instead of clear glass. A good rhythm is an outside wash after the pollen is done in spring, and again in fall once the leaves are down. Inside glass can be washed any time of year.

The type of window changes the job

A lot of homes around Canton are colonials and Cape Cod houses with wood double-hung windows. Many still have aluminum triple-track storm windows mounted over them. That puts two layers of glass on each opening, which means four surfaces to wash instead of two. The storm panels slide in their own tracks, and those tracks fill with dead bugs and grit that nobody can reach from the ground.

Doing them right means working each window as a set. The storm panels slide out of the way so the inner sash can be washed. Then the storm glass gets washed on both sides before it goes back. Skip the storm glass and the inside window looks clean while the view through it still looks dirty. It is easy to miss, because from inside the room the haze looks like it sits on the window you just cleaned.

Newer homes, and older ones that got replacement windows, usually have vinyl double-hungs that tilt in. That makes the outside of the upper sash reachable from inside the room, which is safer and quicker than a ladder on most second floors. The tilt latches and the weatherstripping along the sides get a wipe too, since grit there wears the seal and lets drafts in during winter.

Business windows get dirty a different way

A storefront door takes hand and nose prints all day. The glass next to it picks up smudges at hip height from bags and strollers. Big panes facing a parking lot collect a film from exhaust and road dust, and it shows badly when the afternoon sun hits it. Customers see a streaky front window before they see anything inside the store. That is the glass we look at first on any commercial job.

Office windows are mostly an inside job, and the glass is rarely the hard part. Desks and blinds sit right up against it, so the work starts with moving what can be moved and protecting what cannot. The blinds go all the way up so the squeegee can reach the top of the pane, and they stay up until the glass is dry. We can schedule evenings and weekends, so the work can happen after close when nobody is at a desk.

A storefront usually does best with its glass on a regular rotation, because a front window gets dirty again fast. Ground floor outside panes come first, and inside glass or upper floors can run on a longer cycle. The free on-site estimate is where we work that out. We walk the property and look at how every pane is reached, and there is no obligation to book.