Do you clean the glass on the shop side as well?

No. We are an exterior company, so the face we clean is the one looking at the sidewalk and the parking lot. It is worth saying out loud at the estimate, because a shopfront done on one side only reads as half-finished if the other side was dirty to begin with. If someone handles that side, tell us who it is and when they come.

How often does a storefront actually need this?

The glass association's own position is that twice a year is generally sufficient for exterior glass, and that specific regions may require it more often, because of environmental factors and atmospheric pollutants. A run of glass that a sprinkler head reaches will go off faster than that — the sprinkler for the same reason as above, since whatever is dissolved in the water stays behind when the water dries. Send a photo of yours, or ask us to look at it in person.

Can you get the cloudiness out of old glass?

Sometimes, and nobody can promise it before seeing it. Some hazing sits on the surface and comes off. Some of it is the glass itself having been attacked, and there is nothing there to wash. The glass association warns that any non-routine cleaning carries a risk of irreparable damage, so an attempt is not something to buy unseen. Send a photo, or ask us to look at it.

Can you work outside our opening hours?

It is worth asking for. A hose across the entry, wet pavement at the door and a pole going over the doorway are all easier for everyone when nobody is walking through them, and a shop that is trading does not want a wet doorway. That is a courtesy to you and your customers rather than a rule anybody imposes. Tell us your hours and we will say at the estimate what we can fit around them.

Storefront and building exterior cleaning

One storefront elevation can be four different materials, and three of them each have a trade association publishing a method; the three methods do not all go the same way. Glass is washed from the top down. Vinyl is worked from the bottom up. Stucco is wetted from the bottom up, then washed from the top down. The order of operations is central to this job, and getting it wrong is visible from the sidewalk.

The direction changes with the material

Stand in front of one storefront unit and count the materials. Glass and an aluminium frame at eye level. Painted block or stucco above the head. Perhaps a vinyl soffit under the walkway roof. A fabric awning over the door. Glass, vinyl siding and stucco each have a trade association that publishes a cleaning method, and those three methods do not agree on the most basic question in the job: which way you go. The National Glass Association says exterior glass is washed top down, so that dirty water never lands on glass you have already finished. The vinyl siding association, now the Polymeric Exterior Products Association, says the opposite for its own material — bottom up, because going the other way streaks it. The Stucco Manufacturers Association asks for both: pre-wet the wall from the bottom up, then wash it from the top down. Three sources, three directions, and not one of them is wrong. They are describing different things. Which is why a crew that shows up with a single rule for the whole elevation gets part of it wrong, and you can see which part from the sidewalk — streaking down the vinyl, a film on the glass, a dulled patch on the stucco. Order of operations is central to this work. How much pressure the wall itself can take is a separate argument with its own limits, and it lives on the commercial pressure washing page.

Glass, and the razor blade question

The glass association's published method is undramatic: a mild, non-abrasive solution with no acids in it, applied with a non-abrasive applicator, then taken off with a squeegee. What it rules out matters more than what it allows. Acid is out. Anything abrasive is out, and that includes the razor blade — which the association says must never be used on coated glass at all, and should be the last possible option on heat-treated glass. Tempered and heat-treated glass is stronger, so surely it takes a scrape better? It does not. The association says heat-treated surfaces require greater care when cleaning, not less. Strength under impact and resistance to scratching are two different properties of the same pane, and a door pane that will shrug off a shopping cart still takes a permanent line from a blade dragged over one piece of grit. The same standard carries a rule that Central Florida turns into a scheduling problem: do not clean tinted or coated glass in direct sunlight. A west-facing elevation at three in the afternoon in July is exactly that condition. The solution flashes off before it can be pulled cleanly, and everything it was holding stays on the glass. So which face of a building gets done at which hour is not arbitrary: on a bright day the sun decides the order.

Water with nothing in it, and what happens above the glass

Pure water is not a marketing phrase in this trade. It names one particular method, and it is the one part of this job with a number attached. When the water itself is the cleaner — the pure-water pole system you see going up a shopfront — the glass association and the window cleaners' association are specific: the wash and rinse water must run at 20 parts per million total dissolved solids or less, and tap water is not acceptable. The reasoning is plain: whatever is dissolved in water is still sitting there once the water dries. That is the spotting on a pole-washed shopfront where somebody skipped the filtration, and it is why glass done carefully with plain water can still look done badly. The other half is whatever happens above the glass. The same paper, in its post-construction section, lists sealer overspray and run-off from adjacent masonry or stone waterproofing operations among the things that leave glass no longer cleanable by routine methods. It also warns that any non-routine cleaning carries a risk of irreparable damage — the danger downstream of the overspray. Read the scope: the paper says waterproofing, not washing, and it describes a building site, not an open shop. The paper sets no rule for a wash above an open shop, so none is claimed here. What it does show is why glass under a wall is worth covering before anything is done to the wall above it. Masking a shopfront costs part of a morning, and nobody can promise that a damaged pane can be brought back.

A mildewed awning is a dirty awning

On black speckling on a fabric awning, Glen Raven, which makes Sunbrella, says this about its own fabric: the fabric does not promote mildew growth. The mildew is growing on the dirt and other foreign matter that has settled on top of it. So on that fabric, a mildewed awning is a dirty awning — a cleaning problem sitting on material that may be perfectly sound. The first thing worth establishing is what your awning is actually made of, because that statement is about their product and not about every fabric ever hung over a door. Their published method is as unglamorous as the glass one: a soft-bristle brush, a mild soap, a thorough rinse, and air drying. The cadence they recommend is a hose-down about once a month with a thorough clean every two or three years, and the monthly part is what makes the other part easy. Dirt that never gets to sit is dirt that never grows anything. Then a fact worth settling before the work: if a bleach solution is used to take the staining out, the fabric has to be re-treated afterwards for water and stain resistance. The bleach takes the repellency with it. That belongs in the conversation before the work, not after it.

Common questions

Do you clean the glass on the shop side as well?: No. We are an exterior company, so the face we clean is the one looking at the sidewalk and the parking lot. It is worth saying out loud at the estimate, because a shopfront done on one side only reads as half-finished if the other side was dirty to begin with. If someone handles that side, tell us who it is and when they come.
How often does a storefront actually need this?: The glass association's own position is that twice a year is generally sufficient for exterior glass, and that specific regions may require it more often, because of environmental factors and atmospheric pollutants. A run of glass that a sprinkler head reaches will go off faster than that — the sprinkler for the same reason as above, since whatever is dissolved in the water stays behind when the water dries. Send a photo of yours, or ask us to look at it in person.
Can you get the cloudiness out of old glass?: Sometimes, and nobody can promise it before seeing it. Some hazing sits on the surface and comes off. Some of it is the glass itself having been attacked, and there is nothing there to wash. The glass association warns that any non-routine cleaning carries a risk of irreparable damage, so an attempt is not something to buy unseen. Send a photo, or ask us to look at it.
Can you work outside our opening hours?: It is worth asking for. A hose across the entry, wet pavement at the door and a pole going over the doorway are all easier for everyone when nobody is walking through them, and a shop that is trading does not want a wet doorway. That is a courtesy to you and your customers rather than a rule anybody imposes. Tell us your hours and we will say at the estimate what we can fit around them.

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