Residential window cleaning in Austin means every visible pane inside and out, plus screens off the frame and washed by hand, tracks cleaned, sills wiped, and frames detailed. What changes from town to town is not the checklist. It is what is actually on the glass. In Austin, at 489 feet on Austin Water's Highland Lakes supply on the Colorado River, the work is shaped by airborne debris more than anything else, and the sections below explain exactly how.
Quick answer
Residential window cleaning means a full clean of every visible window, inside and out, including screens, sills, and frames.
The checklist is the same everywhere. What is on your glass is not. These are the conditions that actually shape this job in Austin. Each one is true here and false in plenty of other towns we serve.
Austin's older housing stock includes original wood sash with hand-set glazing, and in the oldest homes the putty failed decades ago and was painted over, meaning the glass is held in place substantially by paint. Cleaning that aggressively can dislodge a pane. We check first, work gently, and tell you what we find, because discovering a glazing failure with a squeegee is the expensive way to learn about it.
Austin has a lot of custom and view-oriented homes, two-story window walls, clerestories, and big fixed panes aimed at whatever the lot was bought for, frequently on a slope with nowhere level to set a ladder. Those are the windows the owner cares about and the ones most often skipped, because reaching them safely takes planning and equipment. We work out access before quoting and list those panes as their own line item, so the cost of the view is visible rather than buried in a per-window average that either overcharges the easy glass or quietly leaves the hard glass dirty.
Parts of Austin have been building continuously for years, and cement, gypsum, and stucco fines from nearby work settle on finished homes well beyond the property line. Once those fines get damp they cure into a haze that behaves like a thin mineral film rather than loose dust. Ordinary cleaner does not lift it, and the instinct to wipe it dry is exactly wrong. The particles are abrasive and dragging them across a pane leaves permanent fine scratching. It needs a wet pass with real dwell time before anything with an edge touches the glass.
Every visible window in the home: interior and exterior surfaces, plus screens, sills, and frames. We don't skip the kitchen window above the sink, the basement egress, or the garage windows.
Screens are removed, washed by hand, and reinstalled. Bent screen splines are corrected; severely damaged screens are flagged for our optional re-screening service, priced per window so you can decide.
Sills (the inside ledge) and tracks (the bottom channel where the window slides) are cleaned out of dirt, dead bugs, and dust. This is the part that DIY cleaning almost always misses.
Frames are wiped down, the painted or wooden border around the glass, including the corners where mineral deposits and pollen accumulate.
Pre-walk and final-walk: a Sonlight technician walks the home with you (if present) at the start to flag anything unusual, and again at the end to verify the work meets your standard.
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Our crew shows up within the time window, in branded trucks with $2M liability and workers' comp. The lead tech walks the property with you (if home) before starting.
Interior windows are squeegeed dry with hand-towels and finished by hand. Exterior is cleaned with a purified-water rinse system that prevents new mineral spotting.
We walk the home with you (or send photos if you're not there). Pay by card, ACH, or check. If anything looks off within 24 hours, we come back free.
Every Austin property is priced individually from your home's square footage, window count, stories, and access, using real completed Austin jobs, not a national average. The fastest way to know your number is to get it directly:
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The fastest-changing blocks in the city — new builds beside 1940s cottages, and post-construction glass that needs a dedicated first clean, not a wash.
Custom homes on wooded hillsides: high fixed panes, skylights, and access planning before anyone touches a squeegee.
Mature oak and pecan canopy over 1930s-50s homes; honeydew film and spring catkins are the standing order here, and much of the glass is original single-pane we treat gently.
Victorian and craftsman stock with true divided-light sash — slow, careful hand work, screens off-frame, no pole pressure on hundred-year-old glazing.
Mid-century ranches under heavy canopy; aluminum tracks pack with oak duff and cedar pollen and need dry detail before any water.
Greenbelt-edge homes with cedar right off the back fence; December pollen load on south-facing glass is the worst in the city.
See every neighborhood and the full local guide on our Austin window cleaning page.
Colorado's mile-high+ altitude means UV exposure is 25-40% stronger than at sea level. Mineral deposits etch into window glass faster, and window seals fail sooner. Twice-yearly professional cleaning is the practical baseline, quarterly for west-facing exposures or homes near sprinkler overspray.
Front Range water averages 50–150 ppm hardness depending on city (Denver Water ~70 ppm, Colorado Springs Utilities ~125 ppm). The water is also slightly alkaline (pH ~8) which etches the silica in glass faster than acidic water of the same hardness.
Spring pollen (cottonwood, pine) and June cottonwood fluff are the heaviest contamination periods. Most Front Range homeowners book a major clean in late May or early June after pollen drops, then a second in October before the holidays.
Three times a year is the honest answer for most of Austin, not twice. Spring after pollen drops and fall before the first hard freeze are the two appointments that do the most work.
Both, included. Screens come off the frame and are washed flat rather than brushed in place, and tracks are cleared dry before any water goes on the window.
Most 2-story Colorado homes (1,800–2,400 sqft, ~22–30 windows) take 2–3 hours with a 2-tech crew. Larger custom homes can run 4–6 hours. We'll give you a specific time window when we confirm the booking.
No. As long as we can access exterior gates, side yards, and any rooms you want cleaned interior, we're fine. We text you when the crew arrives and when the job is complete with photos. Most of our recurring customers are not home during the appointment.
Full service = interior + exterior + screens + sills + frames. Exterior-only = exterior surfaces only, no interior access required. Exterior-only runs about 65-75% of the full-service price and is faster to schedule. Most customers do full service in spring and exterior-only in fall.
Yes. We use water-fed pole systems that reach up to 4 stories, and rope-descent gear for taller buildings. There's no upcharge for height on a typical 2-story residential job, height pricing only kicks in for homes over 3 stories or with bosun-chair access requirements.
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