Window Cleaning in Selly Oak

Big bays, rear extensions and Bristol Road film

Selly Oak’s housing gives a window cleaner a very specific set of problems. Front bays are large, split into several lights, and sit above a bay roof that nothing should be leaning against. Rear kitchen extensions block ladder access to back bedroom windows altogether. Original painted timber sashes survive on plenty of these terraces immediately next door to replacement uPVC, so a single street needs two approaches. On let houses the landlord or agent usually books the glass, often ahead of January viewings, while owner-occupiers towards Selly Park keep a regular cycle.

• Two-storey front bays sitting above a bay roof that no ladder should rest on
• Flat-roof kitchen extensions on the rear blocking access to first-floor back windows
• Traffic film on front elevations along the Bristol Road and the streets immediately off it
• Original painted timber sashes surviving next door to replacement uPVC on the same terrace
• Landlords booking a clean before January viewings, next to owner-occupiers on a regular cycle

Pure water from the ground, with nothing on the bay roof

Everything is done from the ground with filtered pure water on a pole, so nothing rests on the bay roof, the extension roof or the guttering. That matters here, because the flat-roof rear extensions on these terraces were never built to carry a person. The pole brushes the frames and sills as it rinses, which on a Victorian bay is where most of the visible dirt lives: the painted cills and the ledge above the bay collect soot and traffic film and hold it. Surviving timber sashes get a gentler pass than the modern sealed unit next door. Rear access is usually via the shared entry, so the house stays locked.

• Pure water on a pole from ground level, with nothing leaning on the bay roof or a flat-roof kitchen extension
• Painted timber cills and the ledge above the bay brushed by the pole, where the Bristol Road grime actually sits
• Lower pressure on surviving timber sashes than on the replacement uPVC three doors down
• Rear elevations reached through the shared entry, so nobody needs to be in the house

More detail on the equipment and the order of work: the full window cleaning process.

Bays, sashes and the Bristol Road haze

We cover the terraces off the Bristol Road, along Tiverton Road, Dawlish Road, Heeley Road and Hubert Road, and the owner-occupied streets towards Selly Park and Raddlebarn Road, where regular bookings suit the housing. The two behave differently: owner-occupied houses suit a four to eight week cycle, while student houses come in bursts, December and January before viewings, then again in summer when a landlord wants a property looking cared for. Newer flats near Battery Retail Park are usually handled communally through the building’s management.

A bay counts as several windows on a B29 terrace

Price follows the number and type of windows rather than floor area, and Selly Oak terraces are window-heavy for their size, because a bay counts as several units rather than one. A house with original multi-pane sashes on the front takes noticeably longer than the identical house next door with replacement uPVC, and each house is priced on its own windows, with no averaging across the street. One-off cleans cost more than regular ones, because a year of Bristol Road traffic film needs a second pass to clear properly. Landlords with several houses on the same road can book them onto the same visit.

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Four to six weeks on the Bristol Road, longer on the back streets

Four to six weeks for anything fronting the Bristol Road or the main roads off it, where traffic film comes back quickly. Six to eight weeks is plenty on the quieter streets towards Selly Park. A student house can work well on two cleans a year, one ahead of January viewings and one at changeover, and for a property nobody is looking at in between that is a defensible choice.