The short answer: clean the outside of a shopfront on a main road once a month, or fortnightly if you sell food or sit on a busy corner. The outside of an office above street level suits quarterly, or twice a year on a quiet street. Glass near the bay wants the outside done every month or two. Glass doors and partitions inside are wiped on every regular clean.
Those starting points come from two things: who looks at the glass, and what lands on it. A shopfront on a main road scores high on both. An office three floors up a side street scores low on both and can go months between cleans. After two or three rounds, the glass itself will tell you whether to stretch the gap or close it.
I’m Ryan, I run Withers Solutions with my partner Emma, and we do commercial window cleaning for offices and shopfronts within about 25 km of Malvern East. Ring me any hour on 0409 385 707, or send the site and what you need: quotes are free and back the same day.
How often to clean shopfront windows
Start with the outside once a month, and go to fortnightly if you sell food or sit on a busy corner. Street-level glass on a strip like Chapel Street in Prahran or Glenferrie Road in Malvern is a couple of metres from the traffic and within reach of every passing hand.
It picks up a grey road film on the outside and fingerprints around the door, and it’s what a customer judges from the footpath before they’ve decided to come in. The inside face lasts longer, unless there’s a coffee machine or a kitchen behind it. Then steam and grease film the glass from your side as well.
Shop glass is best done before you open. We clean at whatever hour suits, so an early start is normal. If nobody is in, we hold the key and alarm code and lock up when we leave, and we’re insured and police checked.
Window cleaning frequency for office buildings
Quarterly is common for window cleaning, and for the outside of an upstairs office I think that’s about right. Nobody touches glass on the second floor, and it sits above the worst of the road dust. On a quiet street with no building work nearby, twice a year can be enough.
The inside is different. Glass doors, partitions and meeting room walls are handled all day, and a handprint at eye level on a meeting room wall gets noticed. That glass doesn’t wait for a window booking. It’s wiped on every visit of a regular office clean, and it’s on the every-visit list in our office cleaning checklist.
How often to clean windows near the bay
Salt changes the sums. Sea wind leaves it on the glass as a dull film that builds faster than ordinary dust does inland. For a shopfront or an office near the bay, on Fitzroy Street or Acland Street in St Kilda for example, I’d plan on the outside every month or two and look again after a run of windy days.
What makes windows get dirty faster
Whatever the building, each of these shortens the cycle.
- A main road outside. Traffic leaves a greasy film that ordinary dust doesn’t.
- Building work on your street. The dust settles on frames and ledges, then runs down the glass with the next rain.
- A kitchen or a coffee machine behind the glass.
- Trees overhead, which means sap, pollen and birds.
- A door people push on the glass instead of the handle.
- Wind off the bay.
How to keep window cleaning costs down
Glass is periodic work, and periodic work costs least when it rides along with a clean we’re already doing. A separate trip for the windows alone carries its own travel and set-up.
If we already clean your office every week or fortnight, the simple way is to add the outside glass every third month. If you don’t need a regular clean, window cleaning can be booked by itself, on its own cycle or just once. The scheduling guide covers the other savings of this kind.
If the glass is out of reach
We clean glass at ground and low-rise levels. If your outside glass is high enough to need rope access or a platform, say so when you ring. I’ll be straight on the phone about whether it’s a job for us.
Questions about commercial window cleaning
Should the inside and outside of windows be cleaned on the same cycle?
Not usually. The outside takes the road film and the weather, so it sets the cycle: monthly for a shopfront on a main road, quarterly for an upstairs office. The inside face lasts longer, unless a coffee machine or kitchen is behind it. Glass doors and partitions are wiped on every regular visit. Tell me which faces you want and how often, and I’ll quote that.
Does rain clean the outside of windows?
No. Rain on clean glass does little harm. On glass that already has dust on it, or on the frame above it, the water picks the dust up and dries into spots and streaks, which is why windows can look worse the day after a shower.
How do I know when my windows need cleaning?
Look at them with the sun low and coming through the glass, early or late in the day. If you can see a film or handprints from where a customer or a visitor would stand, they’re due, whatever the calendar says.
How often should a medical clinic’s windows be cleaned?
Monthly for the outside of street-level clinic glass, quarterly for a clinic upstairs, and the entry doors and waiting room glass on every regular visit, before the first appointment or after the last. Street-level glass is a shopfront: patients judge the practice from the footpath. The doors and waiting room glass are handled all day. Our medical clinic cleaning page covers the rest of the visit.
Are we locked into the schedule we start with?
No. There are no lock-in contracts. You can change the frequency, pause or stop with reasonable notice, so a cycle that turns out too short or too long is easy to fix. Give a new cycle two or three rounds, then stretch it or close it up depending on how fast the glass comes back.
Get a quote for your windows
Tell me what kind of building it is, what’s behind the glass and roughly how much of it there is, and I’ll suggest a cycle and price it. Ring me on 0409 385 707 at any hour, or ask for a quote and you’ll have a reply the same day. Quotes are free.