Spring Cleaning Your Home's Exterior: The Ultimate Twin Cities Guide

Once the snow melts across the Twin Cities, your home's exterior shows exactly what winter left behind: salt film on the windows, gray grime on the siding, leaves and ice-dam debris in the gutters, and a driveway that looks tired. The best way to tackle it is to work from the top down and clean in the right order, so you never wash a surface twice. This guide walks you through it, and tells you which jobs are easy DIY wins and which are best left to a pro.

Start at the top: gutters and roofline

Clean gutters first, because everything you rinse later runs through them. Winter leaves behind wet leaves, shingle grit, and sometimes small ice-dam damage. Clear the debris, flush the downspouts with a hose, and check that water leaves the downspout at least a few feet from your foundation. Look for sagging sections, loose hangers, and seams that drip. Spring snowmelt and heavy April rains put real stress on gutters, so a clog now can mean water behind the fascia or in the basement later.

Wash the siding before the windows

Siding collects dust, pollen, road salt spray, and the early green or black streaks of algae and mildew, especially on the north and shaded sides of Minnesota homes. A gentle soft wash is the safest way to clean vinyl, and it matters because algae is alive: scrubbing off the surface without treating the root means it grows back quickly. High pressure can force water behind vinyl and damage seals, so keep the pressure low and rinse from the top down.

Then do the windows, screens, and tracks

Windows come after siding because runoff from the wall would spot them. Winter leaves a hazy film on the glass, plus dirt packed into the tracks and sills. Take screens off, rinse and gently scrub them, and let them dry before reinstalling. Clean the frames and tracks, then the glass. Spring is also a good time to look for foggy panes between the glass, which can mean a failed seal that cleaning cannot fix.

• Remove and rinse screens, then let them dry fully
• Clear dirt and dead insects from tracks and sills
• Wash frames before glass so drips do not spot clean windows
• Dry with a squeegee or lint-free cloth to avoid streaks
• Check for cracked caulk, torn weatherstripping, and fogged panes
• Skip second-story ladder work if you are not comfortable; falls are the most common home-cleaning injury

Bring back the deck, fence, and patio

Decks and fences take the worst of freeze-thaw cycles. Sweep them, then check for loose boards, popped nails, and soft spots. Wood needs a gentle approach, because too much pressure raises the grain and leaves fuzzy, damaged boards. If you plan to stain or seal this year, clean first and let the wood dry fully, which usually takes a couple of dry days. Stain applied over dirt or mildew peels early.

Finish with the driveway and walkways

Concrete is last because everything above rinses onto it. Road salt, sand, oil drips, and green algae in shaded spots all show up in spring. Concrete tolerates stronger pressure than siding or wood, so this is where pressure washing really shines. Rust and oil spots may need a targeted treatment first. Spring cleaning also helps you spot cracks that should be sealed before the next freeze.

What is worth hiring out

Plenty of this is safe for a handy homeowner on a weekend: screens, tracks, a light rinse of the deck, and sweeping. The jobs where professionals earn their keep are second-story and hard-to-reach windows, soft washing siding without damaging it, and large driveways or decks where the wrong pressure causes expensive damage. A good company will be fully insured and licensed, use the right method for each surface, and be upfront about price before starting.

A simple order of operations

Gutters, then siding, then windows, then deck and fence, then driveway and walkways. Working in that order keeps every surface clean once you are done and saves you from rework. Pick a dry stretch in April or May, ideally after pollen peaks, and give yourself a full weekend, or split it across two.

Let Starbrite handle the heavy lifting

Starbrite Window Cleaning is a family-owned, minority-owned company based in Blaine, locally owned since 1988. We are BBB A+ accredited since 2012, fully insured and licensed, and our crews are OSHA, IWCA, and BRC Aerial Lift certified. We have cleaned over 12,000 homes and 2,000 commercial properties across Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Dakota, and Scott counties. If you would rather spend your spring weekends enjoying the weather, Request a Quote online or call (952) 922-6860, and we will give you a free, no-pressure estimate.