Window Cleaning in Minneapolis, MN

In a 2015 build, a window is one pane and one pass.

In a 1922 Minneapolis bungalow, one “window” is a wood double-hung sash, plus a separate storm, plus a screen. Three glass surfaces per opening. Multiply that across a house and you understand why a quote from a company that mostly works new construction comes in wrong, and why the crew shows up without the right time booked.

We price by opening and by what is actually on it. Ask us and we will walk the house with you before we start.

A few more things the parcel data shows that matter on the ladder:

• Nearly 57% of Minneapolis houses are story-and-a-half. Bungalows and Cape Cods with steep roofs and dormers — glass that sits above easy ladder reach but below a true second story. That single profile is about half this market.
• About 45% of Minneapolis houses are stucco. Stucco sills and surrounds hold dirt, streak when they are rinsed carelessly, and cannot be scraped like painted wood. It changes how we rinse.
• The city has about 426 miles of alleys. Most pre-war houses have a detached garage off the back. We work off the alley for rear elevations, which is usually easier — except where a garage or fence leaves no clean ladder base.

Storm windows. Pre-1940 houses here typically have removable wood storm and screen sash swapped seasonally. Houses from the 1940s through the 1970s usually have aluminum triple-track combination units. Either way it is two or three surfaces per opening, and the combination units have to have the tracks pulled to get clean. Spring and fall changeover is our busiest window in this city for exactly this reason.

Sunporches. Three-season and sleeping porches were common on Minneapolis homes in the first three decades of the last century, and almost all of them have been enclosed and reglazed since. A porch like that is eight to twenty small sash across two or three walls. It is a lot of openings in a small room, so we price it by count — not as “one room.”

Original art glass. Where it survives — a piano window, a stair landing, a buffet surround — we handle it differently from plate glass. We will say plainly that leaded and stained glass is not typical in Twin Cities bungalows; the local bungalow historians are clear that ours are modest compared to other cities. But where it is there, it is irreplaceable and we treat it that way.

Historic districts. Lynnhurst Residential, Milwaukee Avenue in Seward, Healy Block, Washburn-Fair Oaks, Victory Memorial Drive and the rest. Routine cleaning is maintenance — you do not need a permit to have your windows washed. We mention it because it tells you we know these homes have original sash that cannot be replaced if it gets damaged.

Residential and commercial window cleaning, inside and out. Storm and screen removal, cleaning and reinstall. Sunporch and three-season porch glass. Gutter cleaning. Pressure washing. Siding cleaning and soft washing. Deck and fence cleaning. Solar panel cleaning. Holiday light installation.