How Often Should Storefront and Office Windows Be Cleaned in Boise?
Most storefronts, restaurants and busy office entrances in Boise look their best with a window cleaning once a month, and the busiest storefronts go every two weeks. Office glass that customers don’t walk past, and most inside glass, can usually stretch to quarterly.
A schedule by type of business
The right schedule comes down to two things: how many people see your glass, and how fast it gets dirty. Use this as a starting point:
- Retail storefronts and boutiques: monthly. Your windows are part of your sign. If you sit on a busy street or face a busy parking lot, every two weeks keeps the front looking sharp.
- Restaurants, cafes and coffee shops: monthly. Customers look through the glass while they eat and wait, so smudges and spots get noticed. The door glass takes the most handprints.
- Offices: monthly up front, quarterly for the rest. The entrance and street-facing glass greet every client. Back windows, upper floors and most inside glass can usually stretch to quarterly.
- Clinics, salons, gyms and other appointment businesses: monthly for the entrance and lobby glass, quarterly for the rest of the building.
- Office parks and buildings with several tenants: monthly for the shared entrances, quarterly for everything else.
- Warehouses, shops and buildings with little foot traffic: quarterly, or at least twice a year, in spring and fall.
Every building is a little different. We’ll walk yours and recommend a schedule that fits your business, not one that fills our calendar. Cleaning windows at home instead? Here’s how often to clean your windows in Boise.
Why do storefront windows get dirty so fast?
A storefront takes more wear in a week than most home windows take in a season:
- Hands and noses. Every customer who pushes the door leaves a print, and kids and dogs find the low glass.
- Parking lot dust. Cars pull up a few feet from your windows all day, and the dust they stir up settles on the glass.
- Sprinklers in the landscaping. The planting strips along many buildings get watered all summer, and the spray hits the lower panes. Most Treasure Valley water is hard, so it dries into white mineral spots.
- Dust and pollen. Dry summers, open fields and all the construction around the valley mean a steady film of dust. Spring adds pollen and cottonwood fluff.
- Winter grime. Snow and slush splash up from the sidewalk and the lot, and the low winter sun shows every streak. On gray inversion days, dull glass makes the whole shop look dim.
Signs your business windows are overdue
- The door glass has handprints you’ve stopped noticing. Your customers haven’t.
- Afternoon sun shows a haze or streaks across the front windows.
- White spots line the bottom panes where the sprinklers reach.
- Dust, bugs and cobwebs collect in the corners of the frames and on the sills.
- It’s been more than a season since the last cleaning.
Do commercial windows need cleaning inside too?
Usually less often than outside. Outside glass takes the weather, the sprinklers and the parking lot, so it needs the most attention. For most offices, inside glass every quarter is plenty. The exception is door glass, which picks up handprints every day. Add interior window cleaning to any visit when the inside needs it.
What does commercial window cleaning include?
Our commercial quotes cover exterior window cleaning. Everything else is an add-on, and we only quote what you ask for, up front:
Every window is cleaned by hand and never pressure washed. We scrub the glass, squeegee it dry, and detail the frames, edges and sills. Any screens come off and go back on. Each property gets clean equipment and fresh water, so your glass isn’t wiped with residue from the last building.
Higher glass gets a water-fed pole or extension tools. If something is out of reach, we tell you exactly what it needs and quote it. We’re locally owned and fully insured, and every tech is background-checked. See commercial window cleaning for more.
What about sprinkler spots on storefront glass?
White spots along the bottom of the glass are minerals left behind by irrigation water. Light spots get worked on during every cleaning. Heavier staining takes extra work, so it’s priced on site, and our Monthly and Quarterly members get hard water removal on up to 5 panes every visit.
The best fix is stopping the spray. Ask whoever runs your landscaping to turn or lower the heads so the water stops short of the building. Old spots can etch the glass for good, so don’t let them sit. More in our guide to getting hard water spots off your windows.
How can staff keep the glass clean between visits?
A minute a day on the door glass goes a long way:
- Spray a little glass cleaner onto a microfiber cloth, not straight onto the glass, so it doesn’t drip into the frame.
- Wipe the handprints, then buff the glass dry with a second, dry microfiber cloth.
- Keep those cloths just for glass, and wash them without fabric softener, which leaves a film.
- Skip razor blades and scrub pads. Door glass is often tempered, and a blade can drag tiny bits of debris across it and leave long scratches.
Leave the full outside cleaning, the high glass and anything that needs a ladder to a pro. It’s safer, and the right tools make it faster.
Save with a recurring plan
If you’re cleaning on a schedule anyway, a membership takes money off every cleaning. Monthly and Quarterly members also get RainBlock (our pure water rinse: water filtered down to zero minerals, so the glass dries spot-free with no soap or residue left behind for dirt to cling to), plus our 7-day Rain Guarantee and hard water removal on up to 5 panes every visit. A Biannual plan fits a building that only needs spring and fall. See the memberships.
“Fantastic work. Prompt and extremely diligent. Glad I have them on recurring visits.”
How to get started
We’ll walk your property, note every window and screen, and get you a clear quote within one business day. Recurring service usually starts within a week: we do a full cleaning first, then set a schedule that works around your hours.
We clean storefronts and offices across the Treasure Valley, from Boise and Meridian to Eagle, Nampa and Caldwell. Get a free quote, or call or text (208) 484-5207, Monday through Saturday, 8am to 7pm.