The brief
An estate agency's window is its shop floor. Century 21 Oceanic sits on the Vilamoura Marina front, and the listings in that glass are the first thing thousands of people walk past every day in season.
The problem is position. Marina-front glazing in the Algarve takes airborne salt off the water constantly, and the region's hard water leaves calcário spotting behind every time glass gets rinsed and dries in the sun. Add the fingerprints and pushed-open doors of a busy walk-in office and the frontage stops being invisible — which is exactly what a shop window is supposed to be.
What they needed was straightforward: the whole frontage properly clean, inside and out, without shutting the office or getting in the way of viewings.
Outside: the frontage
The exterior was cleaned the traditional way: applicator and solution to wash the glass down, squeegee to take it off, microfibre to detail the edges. Extension poles put the high glazing within reach from the ground, so no ladders went up on a public walkway, and the entrance stayed clear and dry the whole time.
Washed down top to bottom
Applicator and solution across the full-height panes and the high glazing above the entrance, worked from the top so nothing dirty runs back over finished glass.
Frames, sills, doors and edges by hand
The parts most window cleaners skip. Frames and sills scrubbed, entrance door glass and handles detailed with microfibre, and every drip taken off the frames before we moved on.
Squeegeed off, blade wiped every pass
Overlapping squeegee passes with the blade dried between each one. That is what stops the lines and smears you get from a rushed commercial clean.
Inside: the half most people skip
Cleaning only the outside is the most common mistake on a commercial frontage. From the pavement a customer sees both surfaces of the glass at once, so smears on the inside still read as a dirty window — and on an estate agency frontage the inside face is the one behind the illuminated property displays, where dust settles and nobody can easily reach.
So every visit covers both sides of every pane: the internal glazing, the panes behind the digital listing screens, the entrance doors and the internal partitions. The office stayed open throughout, the Aberto sign stayed up, and the entrance was kept clear and dry the whole time.
Why every two weeks
A one-off clean on a marina frontage looks excellent for about a fortnight. Salt comes off the water, dust comes off the calçada, and the doors get pushed open a few hundred times a week — and glass that is left to reload eventually stops responding to a normal clean at all, because salt film and hard-water calcário bond to the surface and start needing restoration rather than cleaning.
A fortnightly round is the cheap version of that problem. The frontage never gets far enough gone to need anything more than a routine visit, and Century 21 Oceanic never has to think about it.
The result
The property displays read clearly from across the walkway again, the glass is clear on both faces, and the frontage is now maintained rather than rescued.
“Excellent service from Algarve Cleaning Crew. They were friendly, punctual and very attentive to detail. Our shop window in Vilamoura was left spotless, with great value for money. Highly recommended for professional cleaning services in the Algarve.”
Common questions
How often should shopfront windows be cleaned in Vilamoura?
Every two weeks. Marina and seafront glass in the Algarve picks up airborne salt, dust and fingerprints far faster than inland glazing, and a fortnightly round keeps it permanently clear instead of letting it build up into a job that needs restoring.
Do you clean the inside of shopfront glass as well as the outside?
Yes. Every visit covers both sides of every pane. Cleaning only the outside is the most common mistake on commercial frontages, because from the pavement the customer sees both surfaces at once and dirt on the inside still reads as a dirty window.
Do we have to close while you clean the windows?
No. We cleaned Century 21 Oceanic with the office open and staff working through. We work around viewings and walk-ins, keep the entrance clear and dry, and take the drips off the frames and floor as we go.
How do you reach high shopfront glazing?
From the ground, using extension poles. On a marina walkway that matters as much as the finish does, because it keeps ladders out of the way of pedestrians and out of your doorway while you are trading.
Do you clean other businesses on Vilamoura Marina?
Yes. We run a commercial round covering marina-front offices, restaurants and retail units in Vilamoura. Being on a round with neighbouring units brings the per-visit price down for everyone on it.
