How Often Should You Clean Your Windows in Colorado?

Twice a year works for most homes: once in late spring and once in the fall. Interior glass can usually go once a year, since it doesn’t see weather. From there, what’s around your house moves the number up or down.

Why late spring and fall

Late spring

Front Range springs are windy and dusty, and in the foothills the pines put out a heavy yellow coat of pollen in late spring and early summer. It lands on everything, glass included. Clean too early and you’ll be doing it twice, so the spring visit belongs after the worst of the wind and pollen has passed.

Fall

The sun sits low through the winter months, and low sun coming through dirty glass lights up every streak, spot and smudge. A fall cleaning clears summer’s dust, bug spots and sprinkler marks before they sit there all winter. It also lines up with the late autumn gutter clear-out, so both can happen on one visit while the ladder’s out.

What about winter?

Windows can be cleaned on mild winter days, and Colorado gets a fair number of those. Below freezing, though, water on exterior glass can freeze before it’s wiped off. Cold days are fine for interior glass.

What means cleaning more often

• Sprinklers that reach the glass. Mineral spots build up over a summer and get harder to remove the longer they sit. Adjust the heads, and clean more often until you do. The guide to hard water spots covers getting them off.
• Heavy pine cover. Pollen and needles land on windows as well as in gutters, and screens under trees clog faster.
• Construction nearby. New builds and remodels put fine dust in the air for months, and neighborhoods still building out get a steady film on the glass.
• Wildfire smoke. After a smoky stretch, a layer of ash settles on exterior glass and screens.
• Kids and dogs. Glass doors and low windows need a quick wipe far more often than twice a year, though that’s a five-minute job and not a full cleaning.
• Selling the house. Get the windows done before the listing photos are taken.

What means less often

Deep roof overhangs shield glass from rain and dust. A house with no trees close by and no sprinklers aimed at it stays cleaner longer. Upstairs windows sit above splashback and hands, so they get dirty more slowly than the ground floor, though weather still gets to them.

A simple schedule for a typical house

Clean exterior glass, screens and sills in late spring and again in the fall. If you’re doing that part yourself, how to clean outside windows has the steps and the ladder rules. Do interior glass once a year, usually with the fall visit, plus quick wipes on doors and low panes as needed. Put skylights and high fixtures on one of those visits, since the ladder is already there.

Booking the fall visit

Over the past year of Google search data for Colorado, searches for window cleaning peaked in September, well above anything in spring, so plenty of people have the same idea at the same time. If you want your windows done before the weather turns, get the request in early.

Window cleaning starts at nine dollars a pane, cleaned inside and out, and the pricing breakdown explains what changes the final number. Send the quote form with your address and how many stories your home has, and a real person sends back a straight price.