Orange County · Orange County · 56 ft
Sonlight serves Irvine across Woodbridge, Northwood, Turtle Rock, University Park, the Great Park neighbourhoods and Portola Springs. Irvine is the most systematically planned city in the region, and two of the systems that plan it, the water and the irrigation, are the reason your windows look the way they do.
Irvine Ranch Water District sells two different waters. Its local treated groundwater has been reported around 107 milligrams per litre, roughly 6.3 grains per gallon, which is moderately hard. Its imported treated surface water has been reported around 276 milligrams per litre, roughly 16 grains, which is very hard. That is a two-and-a-half-fold spread inside one district, and which one reaches your address depends on your zone. It is why a neighbour's advice about spotting is genuinely unreliable in this city and why we test the deposit on your actual glass before quoting mineral restoration.
The second Irvine system is purple pipe. IRWD pioneered recycled-water distribution in the early 1980s and now runs 572 miles of purple pipeline to more than six thousand metered connections, irrigating roughly eighty percent of the public and commercial landscape in its service area: association common ground, medians, parks, schools and golf. That is the right use of the resource and it carries a higher dissolved-salt load than potable. Where a common-area head overshoots onto a wall or a ground-floor window, the deposit is different from anything your own hose leaves, it is more stubborn, and it is not your sprinkler. That is why the stain keeps coming back after you have adjusted your own system.
Four variables decide what is on a window in Southern California and what it takes to get it off: which water you drink, how much ocean you get, where the wind comes from, and how long it goes without raining. Here is where Irvine sits on each.
Southern California does not run on the four seasons that window cleaning advice usually assumes. Irvine follows the Orange County calendar, which is the actual year in the order it happens and what each phase does to your glass.
What it does to glass
Nearly all of the year's rain arrives here. The first storm mobilises seven months of dust and salt and runs it down the glass in streaks, and it finds every partial gutter run on a tile roof.
What we do about it
Clean in late October or November. Going into the wet season with clean glass is the single highest-value appointment of the Orange County year.
What it does to glass
Heavy on the coast, moderate through Costa Mesa and Irvine, thinning fast toward Anaheim and the foothills. Fog wets existing dust and holds salt in solution against the glass for hours at a time.
What we do about it
Sun side first, shaded elevations after the layer lifts. On the coast this season is when salt does its chemical work, which argues for interval rather than for a different technique.
What it does to glass
Seven months with no rinse while both potable and recycled irrigation run continuously. On very hard basin water, every head that clips a pane leaves calcium that the sun sets within minutes.
What we do about it
We walk the beds before leaving and identify which heads are hitting glass and which side of the property line they are on. Three visits a year on the coast and in the master plans, twice inland on sheltered lots.
What it does to glass
The Santa Ana Canyon is the corridor these winds are named for, and Anaheim Hills, Yorba Linda, Orange and the South County foothills take them hard. Grit packs tracks and abrades screens, and the inland-facing elevation loads first.
What we do about it
Tracks cleared dry before water, always. Screens inspected as they come off. Active events get rescheduled rather than worked through.
What it does to glass
In the eastern and South County interface, smoke residue rather than dust: alkaline ash, fine carbon, condensed tars.
What we do about it
Flooded neutral-pH pass, then solvent, then wash. Never a dry wipe, and quoted as its own job.
The full regional guide, including what makes Orange County different from the rest of the metro, is on our Orange County page.
One Irvine neighbour is on roughly 6-grain treated groundwater and another on roughly 16-grain imported surface water, and both are on IRWD. That is why local advice about spotting is unreliable and why a contractor's experience across town does not transfer. We test the actual deposit on your actual glass before quoting restoration, because guessing from the city name gets it wrong here more often than almost anywhere.
Around eighty percent of the public and commercial irrigated landscape in the IRWD area runs on recycled water through 572 miles of purple pipe. Recycled supply carries more dissolved salt than potable, so common-area overspray leaves a more stubborn deposit than your own hose does. Adjusting your own system changes nothing. We identify which side of the property line the spray originates on and document it for the association.
The eastern and foothill villages sit in the corridor the Santa Ana winds are named for. Grit packs tracks and weep holes and abrades screen mesh, and it arrives from inland, so it loads the elevation facing away from the ocean. Those tracks have to be cleared dry before any water goes on the window, because wet grit under a squeegee is how glass gets permanently scratched.
Pricing is per property: square footage, window count, stories and access. Here is a real Irvine example:
Example: Two-storey 2,700 sqft Woodbridge home, roughly 28 openings including a two-storey great room window
Interior only
$405
Exterior only
$455
Both (most popular)
$755
Mineral restoration for irrigation etching is quoted separately. It is a different job than washing, and pretending otherwise is how customers end up paying twice. Get an exact price for your Irvine address in 30 seconds.
Association-managed with extensive common landscape on purple-pipe irrigation, plus lake-facing glass that shows every deposit.
Hillside village with view glass over slopes and access that needs planning on downslope elevations.
Established village housing with mature landscaping and common-area irrigation reaching ground-floor glass.
Older Irvine stock with mature canopy loading tracks with organic litter alongside mineral.
Newest construction with high solar density and ongoing construction dust from adjacent phases.
Foothill village taking Santa Ana Canyon wind directly, with interface exposure on the upper edges.
Mid-rise and tower residential and office where exterior work above the third floor is rope access.
Custom estate homes with extensive glass on large landscaped grounds and difficult elevations.
ZIP codes served: 92602, 92604, 92606, 92612, 92614, 92618, 92620
Interior and exterior glass, screens off the frame and hand-washed, and tracks cleared dry before any water touches the window.
The service this metro actually needs most. Most of Greater LA drinks 12 to 18 grain water, and irrigation overspray does more permanent damage to glass here than anything airborne.
Title 24 has put an array on nearly every home built since 2020, and seven rainless months mean nothing washes them. Measured California soiling is around 7 percent across a dry summer.
Near the coast salt pits the frame and hardens the spline years before the mesh looks worn. Inland, Santa Ana grit abrades it. Rescreening is routine here, not an upsell.
Low-pressure washing for stucco. Pressure drives water into a stucco wall assembly where it has nowhere to go, and the damage shows up months later.
Driveways, walks and hardscape, with a degreasing step where corridor oil is in the concrete. We keep pressure off stucco entirely.
Cement, stucco and gypsum fines cure onto new glass and are harder than it is. Dry-wiping them scratches permanently. This needs a dedicated flooded pass.
Only where your roof actually has gutters. Barrel tile here frequently carries partial runs, and low-slope roofs drain through scuppers instead. We check before quoting.
It depends which supply reaches your zone, and this is genuinely unusual. Irvine Ranch Water District delivers local treated groundwater reported around 107 milligrams per litre, roughly 6.3 grains per gallon, and imported treated surface water reported around 276 milligrams per litre, roughly 16 grains. That is a two-and-a-half-fold difference inside one district. We test the deposit on your glass rather than assuming from the address.
Because the spray is probably not yours. Around eighty percent of the public and commercial irrigated landscape in this district runs on recycled water through purple pipe, and recycled supply carries a higher dissolved-salt load than potable. If an association head is overshooting onto your wall, nothing you change on your own system will fix it. We work out where it originates and document it.
Yes, including rope descent and bosun chair work. Above roughly the third floor exterior cleaning is a licensed, OSHA-governed discipline with anchor inspection and rescue planning attached. When bids on a mid-rise vary wildly, the usual explanation is that one of them covers only what a pole can reach.
See the full Greater Los Angeles service area and Southern California window care guide.
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