How to Clean Outside Windows, Upstairs Included

To clean outside windows, rinse the glass with a hose, wash it with a bucket of water and a few drops of dish soap, then pull the water off with a squeegee and dry the edges with a lint-free cloth. Clean the frame and sill first, and work in the shade.

That method works on any house. Foothills glass just carries more by fall. A south-facing window in Evergreen or Conifer has usually collected a spring coat of pine pollen, a summer of dust off dry ground, sap dots from the ponderosas, sprinkler or well-water spots along the bottom, and ash if fire season got smoky. The wash takes care of most of it. The rest needs its own treatment, which is covered below along with the upstairs glass you can’t reach from the lawn.

How do you clean outside windows step by step?

Work one window at a time from rinse to squeegee, so nothing dries on the glass before you get to it.

1. Start on a side of the house that’s in shade. Do the sunny faces in the morning or evening, or wait for a cloudy day.
2. Take the screens out and set them aside, labeled, so each one goes back where it came from.
3. Brush cobwebs, needles and loose dirt off the frame, the top of the trim and the sill. Anything left there ends up on the wet glass.
4. Rinse the glass with a hose on a gentle spray to float off dust, pollen and ash.
5. Treat the stubborn spots: lay a soapy cloth over bird and bug marks for a minute to soften them, and take sap off with rubbing alcohol.
6. Scrub the whole pane with a strip washer or sponge dipped in water with a few drops of dish soap. Keep the glass wet.
7. Squeegee the water off from the top down, overlapping each stroke and wiping the blade between strokes.
8. Dry the edges and corners with a lint-free cloth or chamois, then wipe the sill.
9. Wash the screens, and put them back only once they’re completely dry.

On big panes in dry air, wet the glass again if it starts drying before the squeegee gets there. Squeegeeing half-dried soap leaves a film.

One catch that’s particular to the foothills: plenty of homes here run the hose off a private well, and well water carries minerals. Never let a well-water rinse air dry on the glass. Wash and squeegee right behind it, or the rinse leaves the same spotting you were trying to clean off. For the squeegee itself, the post on cleaning windows without streaks goes through technique stroke by stroke.

What is the best thing to clean outside windows with?

A bucket of water with a few drops of plain dish soap. It loosens the dust and pollen that make up most of what’s on exterior glass and helps the squeegee glide. Most of the rest is the same kit as indoor glass, only bigger:

• A strip washer (the fuzzy scrubber on a T-bar) or a large sponge.
• A squeegee with a sharp rubber blade. A 14 or 18 inch channel covers big exterior panes faster.
• Lint-free cloths or a chamois for the edges.
• A garden hose with a gentle spray setting for the first rinse.
• An extension pole that threads onto the scrubber and squeegee, if you have windows above arm’s reach, with an angle adapter so the squeegee meets the glass flat from below.

Is Dawn dish soap good for washing outside windows?

Yes, as long as you use very little. A few drops in a bucket is plenty. A squirt big enough to fill the bucket with suds leaves a film that shows up as haze once the glass dries, and it takes more rinsing to get off. Any plain dish soap behaves the same way.

Where vinegar helps

Vinegar earns its place on mineral spots. White vinegar and water mixed about half and half, sprayed on in the shade and wiped off before it dries, is the first thing to try on the frosted band a sprinkler leaves along the bottom panes. The hard water spots guide has the full steps, plus how to tell when a spot has etched the glass and won’t come off.

What not to use

Leave the pressure washer in the garage. It can force water past window seals and into the frame, and it’ll blow screen mesh right out of its spline. Don’t wipe or scrape dry glass either, since the dust on it is fine grit that drags across the pane. Steel wool and abrasive pads leave scratches, and paper towels leave lint.

What’s on foothills glass, and what takes it off

Dust and pollen are the bulk of it. Pine pollen shows up as a yellow-green film in late spring and early summer, and strong sun at altitude bakes it onto the glass. Both come off easily once they’re wet, which is why the rinse comes before anything touches the pane.

Pine sap is the sticky one. Homes under ponderosa get small amber dots on the glass, usually on the windows closest to the trees, and soap and water won’t shift them. A cloth dampened with rubbing alcohol usually softens sap enough to wipe away. Keep the alcohol off painted or stained trim, and test a small spot first if you aren’t sure how the frame is finished.

Sprinkler and well-water spotting looks like a frosted band across the lower panes. That’s mineral left behind when the water dried, and ordinary washing won’t remove it. Vinegar is the fix for fresh spots, as above.

Bird droppings and bug residue need soaking. Lay a wet, soapy cloth over the spot for a minute or two, then wipe. Scraping a dry dropping drags whatever grit is in it across the glass.

Ash after fire season is gritty too. Rinse it off with the hose before anything touches the glass, and wash the screens at the same time, since they hold ash and let it back out every time it rains.

How do you clean second-story windows from the outside?

Stay on the ground if you can. Tilt the sash in and clean it from inside, or reach it with an extension pole, and bring out a ladder only when neither of those works.

From inside, if the windows tilt

Many newer double-hung windows tilt in. Look for small latches or tabs on the top rail of each sash; slide them in and the sash tips toward you, so you can clean the outside face from inside the house. Some casement windows open wide enough to reach the outer glass from indoors too. Check your window maker’s instructions before forcing anything, and take upstairs screens out from inside while you’re at it.

From the ground, with a pole

For fixed upstairs glass, an extension pole with a scrubber, then a squeegee on an angle adapter, will reach most second-story windows from the lawn. It takes practice to get a clean pull from below, and you’ll likely need to touch up the edges.

A water-fed pole is the other ground-level option, and it works on a different idea. The pole runs water through a filter that strips out the dissolved minerals, and a brush on the end scrubs the glass while it rinses. Since the water has nothing left in it to leave behind, the glass air dries without spots. Ordinary tap or well water through the same pole would leave exactly the spotting you were trying to clean off. The poles and filters cost real money, so they make the most sense for someone with a lot of tall glass who plans to keep at it.

From a ladder, when that’s the only way

• Set it on firm, level ground. On a slope, and most foothills yards are one, use a proper leg leveler rather than blocks or boards.
• Use the 4-to-1 rule: for every four feet of height to where the ladder rests, the feet go one foot out from the wall.
• Keep three points of contact whenever you’re climbing: two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand.
• Don’t rest the rails on the glass. A stand-off stabilizer holds the ladder against the wall on either side of the window.
• Keep your belt buckle between the rails. If you have to lean to reach, climb down and move the ladder.
• Stay off the top rungs, and check the manufacturer’s label for how high you can stand.
• Hang the bucket from a hook on the ladder instead of carrying it up.
• Have someone foot the ladder, stay well clear of overhead power lines, and come down if the wind picks up.

Frames, sills and screens

Exterior sills collect more than you’d think: needles, dead bugs, grit blown in off the driveway. A stiff brush and a damp rag clear most of it, and an old paintbrush gets into the corners and weep holes (the small drainage slots along the bottom of many window frames). Clear weep holes let rainwater drain out of the frame.

Wipe the frames with the same soapy water you used on the glass, then rinse. Wood trim just wants a damp cloth and no soaking.

Screens get their own wash while they’re out. The guide to cleaning window screens covers the full wash on the driveway. Let them dry completely before they go back in, or they’ll drip onto the glass you just finished.

When is the best time to clean outside windows in Colorado?

Late spring and fall, which is the twice-a-year rhythm that suits most homes. How often to clean windows goes through what pushes a house to more or fewer visits. October and November are also when most people look this up, and it’s a good season for it: the summer’s dust and spotting is on the glass, the pollen is long over, and the low winter sun will light up every streak you leave behind. Fall weather in the foothills changes quickly, though, so pick the day with some care.

Start with temperature. A frosty pane, or a shaded one that’s still near freezing, can skin over with ice as you work. Wait until the frost is gone and the air has warmed, which on a clear foothills morning can take until late morning. Don’t push it into the afternoon in full sun, either. A pane in direct sun at altitude dries fast, and soap that dries before the squeegee gets there leaves a film, so follow the shade around the house as the day goes.

Wind is the one people forget. Gusty days blow dust and needles straight onto wet glass, dry it unevenly and make ladders dangerous. Canyon winds can come up quickly, so check the forecast for gusts and not just the average. A calm, overcast, mild day is about ideal, and the later into November you go, the fewer of those you get.

If the ladder is coming out in late fall anyway, that’s also when gutters under the pines want their main clear-out, ideally before the first hard freeze. Do the gutters before the glass, so anything that spills over comes down before the windows are clean. The post on when to clean gutters in the foothills covers the timing.

How do professionals clean outside windows?

Most residential window cleaners use one of two methods. One is the wash-and-squeegee method above, done faster with good blades and a lot of practice. The other is a water-fed pole with purified water, which scrubs and rinses tall glass from the ground and leaves it to dry on its own.

We clean by hand. Every pane gets a squeegee and chamois, inside and out, with the sills and screens included, and we walk the house to check the work before the ladder comes down.

Some jobs are worth handing off: glass above the reach of a pole, anything that needs a tall ladder on a steep or uneven lot, walls of glass in a great room, and windows over decks, stairs or rooflines where a ladder won’t sit right. The same goes for spots that don’t come off with the steps above, which may be etched glass rather than dirt.

Pricing starts at nine dollars a pane, and what moves that number is written up if you’re comparing. We work across Evergreen, Conifer, Golden and Bailey in the foothills and Highlands Ranch, Centennial, Littleton and Lakewood in the south Denver metro, and we clear gutters on the same visit if you want them done. See the full list of services, or send the quote form with your address and how many stories your home has, and a real person will send back a straight price.