Window Cleaning in Longbridge

Building dust, frameless balustrades and pale render

Building work, where it continues, is the local complication. Where parts of the old Rover site are still being built out, the fine dust that comes with that does not behave like ordinary traffic film: it settles as a pale bloom that shows on large panes far more than it would on a small Victorian sash, and it collects in the inset reveals around modern windows where rain never rinses it. Glass balustrades on the balconies are worse again, because they are a full sheet with no frame to hide the streaking, and they are looked through from a seated position where every mark is at eye level. Pale render below the sills then shows the dirty run-off from all of it.

• Dust from nearby building work settling as a pale bloom that large modern panes show plainly
• Inset reveals around the apartment glazing, which trap that dust in a spot no rain reaches
• Frameless glass balconies and balustrades, seen at eye level from a seated position with nothing to disguise streaking
• Thin through-coloured render below the windows, which shows run-off staining and marks permanently under a ladder foot
• uPVC bays and wide sills on the Austin-era semis, where the frames hold more visible grime than the glass does

Pure water up a pole, with nothing touching the render

Filtered, deionised water fed up a pole, worked entirely from ground level, which reaches up to three storeys. Nothing rests against the render, the balcony frame or the balustrade fixings. Glass balustrades are done as a single panel top to bottom rather than in sections, because a join in the stroke shows on frameless glass. Reveals and frames are brushed with the pole as the glass is rinsed, since that is where the dust actually sits. Anything above three storeys becomes an access equipment job for the agent, not something we improvise.

• Ground-based pole throughout, so no ladder foot ever touches thin modern render or a balcony fixing
• Glass balustrades worked as one continuous panel, because on frameless glass a joined stroke shows
• Inset reveals and frames brushed by the pole, where building dust collects out of the rain
• Any elevation past three storeys reported to the agent as an access job, never attempted

More detail on the equipment and the order of work: how we do window cleaning, step by step.

One instruction for a block beats twelve

Longbridge window work takes in the apartment elevations near the town centre and the station, then the Austin-era streets off Longbridge Lane, Groveley Lane and out towards the B45 boundary. Balcony glass usually needs somebody in, because the useful face of a balustrade is reached from inside the flat, so we book those with the resident while the exterior elevation is done regardless. Where a management company instructs the whole block at once, the elevation is planned and cleaned in one visit and ends up looking finished, with no patchwork of clean and dirty flats.

Height and the number of separate instructions in a block

Two things set the price here: how high the elevation goes and how many separate instructions we are working from. Height is straightforward, in that an upper-storey window takes longer at the pole than a ground-floor one. The second is how the block is instructed: one instruction from the management company lets the whole elevation be planned in a single visit, while leaseholders booking individually each get a visit of their own. Balcony glass is quoted separately because it needs access to the flat. On the older semis it is simply the window count and the frames.

Get a free, no-obligation quote

Six weeks as standard, four while the nearby build-out is busy

Six weeks is our standard here and four is worth it while heavy phases of the regeneration are running nearby, because that dust returns quicker than ordinary traffic film. Blocks facing the A38 pick up road grime on top of it and sit at the shorter interval too. A sheltered Austin-era semi with uPVC is comfortable at eight weeks. Annual cleaning on a modern elevation is poor value, since every visit then starts as a recovery job.