Window Cleaning in Bloomington, MN
Bloomington is a postwar city, and almost nothing here is old.
Only 3.3% of Bloomington homes were built before 1940. Two out of five went up in the 1950s and 60s. The median Bloomington home dates to 1972. If you have read our Minneapolis page, this is the mirror image of it — that city is two-thirds pre-war, this one is barely three percent.
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A city that grew five times over in ten years
Bloomington had 3,647 people in 1940. By 1950 it had 9,902. By 1960 it had 50,498 — a 410% jump in a single decade — and by 1970, nearly 82,000.
The city's own history calls the 1950s its "boom town" era. Bloomington went from village to city in 1960. Metropolitan Stadium and I-35W both arrived, and the first land use plan followed in 1956.
You can still see it in the housing. The City's Forward 2040 plan describes the residential fabric in its own words as "mid-century ramblers, duplexes, bi-level and split entry houses" — and puts nearly half of all single-family homes as built before 1960, with about 78% before 1976.
East and west are different cities
Bloomington does not have named neighborhoods the way Minneapolis does, and we are not going to invent some. People here locate themselves by east or west of I-35W, by corridor, or by the lake or school nearby.
That east–west line is real, and it is a housing-age line. The city's comprehensive plan says it plainly: "Early housing growth was concentrated in eastern Bloomington, gradually spreading west in the 1970s and 80s."
- East Bloomington — the older half. 1950s and 60s ramblers and split-levels, the original boom stock.
- West Bloomington — 1970s onward, larger homes, more 1990s and 2000s construction.
- The three development districts — South Loop (I-494 to the river, home to Mall of America), Penn American along American Boulevard, and Normandale Lake.
- The corridors — I-494, American Boulevard, Lyndale Avenue, France Avenue, Old Shakopee Road, Normandale Boulevard.
Landmarks we work around: Mall of America, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, Normandale Lake and the Japanese Garden at Normandale Community College, Hyland Lake Park Reserve and the ski jumps, Bush Lake, Nine Mile Creek, the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, Bloomington Ice Garden and the Pond–Dakota Mission Park.
Two local corrections, because outsiders get these wrong constantly. The Minnesota Zoo is in Apple Valley, not Bloomington. And MSP Airport is not in Bloomington — it sits in the unincorporated Fort Snelling territory next door. Bloomington is adjacent to it, not host to it.
What Bloomington windows are actually like
A 1950s or 60s rambler has a signature front elevation: one large fixed picture window in the living room, usually flanked by narrow operable sashes. Behind it, wood double-hungs or casements of the period, and horizontal sliders in the lower level.
Two things make those houses more work than they look:
Aluminum triple-track storms. The standard Upper Midwest retrofit of that era, and still on a great many Bloomington houses. That is a second pane and a track per opening, and the track has to come out to be cleaned properly rather than wiped through.
Split-levels and split-entries. Half-flights mean glass at awkward mid-heights that suits neither a short ladder nor a tall one, plus hopper or awning basement windows sitting right at grade where the sprinkler hits them.
Expect a mixed inventory too. Sixty years of ownership means many of these houses now have a patchwork — original wood sash on one elevation, 1990s vinyl replacements on another. We price by what is actually there.
Newer west-side and South Loop construction is a different job again: banks of clad casements, transoms, tall stairwell and great-room glazing.
The water is softer than you would guess
Bloomington's raw water comes out of the ground at 19 grains per gallon — very hard. But the city is one of only about two dozen Minnesota utilities that softens centrally, using lime softening in two 550,000-gallon basins. Treated water leaves the plant at roughly 5.2 grains per gallon.
So Bloomington tap water is moderately hard, not very hard, and your glass is better off for it than a house on untreated well water in the north metro.
The exception matters. If your irrigation runs off a private well, it is not going through the city plant — that water is the raw 19 grains, and it shows. Houses on irrigation wells here get dramatically worse mineral spotting along the bottom of the lower windows than their neighbors on city water. If that is you, tell us; it changes the treatment.
Bloomington's sprinkling rules are odd/even by address with no watering allowed between noon and 6 p.m., enforced with a warning and then a $25 charge. Those are drought-triggered rather than a fixed annual season, so check the city before assuming they are on.
Bloomington is also a serious commercial market
Half our business is commercial, and there is a lot of glass in this city. Bloomington has 13.3 million square feet of office space, over 40 hotels with close to 10,000 rooms, and a 5.6 million square foot shopping mall — inside about 35 square miles of land.
Normandale Lake Office Park alone is 1.7 million square feet of Class A office, the largest office complex in the Twin Cities. Daytime population here is nearly 141,000 against about 92,000 residents.
We do storefront, office, hospitality and multi-tenant work alongside the residential routes. If you manage property along the 494 strip or in the South Loop, we can quote a schedule rather than one-off visits.
What we do in Bloomington
Residential and commercial window cleaning, inside and out. Screens. Storm window removal and reinstall. Gutter cleaning. Pressure washing. Siding cleaning and soft washing. Deck and fence cleaning. Solar panel cleaning. Holiday light installation and takedown.
Our Services in Bloomington
Bloomington questions we actually get
Why is my neighbor's glass clean and mine is spotted?
Most often, an irrigation well. City water here is softened to about 5 grains; well water is the raw 19. Same street, very different result.
Do you take out the aluminum storms on our rambler?
Yes. They come out, both sides and the track get cleaned, and they go back in. Mention it when you book — it adds time.
Our split-entry has windows at heights nothing reaches. Is that a problem?
No, it is most of this city. Split-levels are our normal work here.
Do you do commercial buildings along 494?
Yes — office, hotel and storefront. We can set up a recurring schedule rather than one-offs.
Is all the road construction going to be an issue?
The I-494 rebuild runs through the end of 2026 and there is real dust off it. It is a good argument for cleaning more than once a year while it is going on, not a reason to skip.
Nearby Areas We Serve
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