The brief
Count the panes on a villa like this and you get to sixty. Count the faces and you are past a hundred.
The brief was the whole property, inside and out. That covers the sliding doors along the main elevation, the courtyard glazing, the windows on every floor, the skylight, and the glass balustrades that wrap the terraces and balconies.
The balustrades are the part people forget to ask about, and on this villa they were a job in their own right. A window has one face exposed to the outside. A balcony panel has two, both of them standing in the open where wind puts salt and the irrigation puts hard water. It is also the glass at eye level when you are sitting out, which means it is the pane doing the most to your view of the garden and the pool.
Interior and exterior in one visit is nearly always the right call on a villa. Clean one face of a pane and the other one announces itself immediately, and a window is only really finished when you cannot tell which side was done.
How we worked it
Traditional method throughout. Applicator and solution to wash the glass down, squeegee to take it off, microfibre to detail edges, frames and sills. Ladder and pole for anything above reach. Six hours on site with two of us, which is what a property this size takes when both faces are in the brief.
Exterior first, top down
Outside faces before inside ones, high before low, one elevation at a time. Water off a high pane runs onto whatever is below it, so anything already finished underneath would only need doing twice.
Balustrades treated as two-sided glass
Every balcony and terrace panel washed on both faces, edges included. Salt and irrigation spotting comes off wet. Dry cloth on a gritty panel is how glass picks up fine scratches.
Skylight washed, not wiped
Horizontal glass holds water where it lands and dries whatever it was carrying in place, so it gets flooded and worked properly rather than given a pass on the way by.
Floors protected before we came inside
The mess from an interior glass clean is water on the floor. Protection goes down under the working area first, furniture gets moved by us and put back exactly where it was.
Frames, sills and tracks alongside
Sliding door tracks cleared as part of the job. Grit sitting in a track is back on the glass the next windy day.
Both faces checked before packing up
The property gets walked and the glass checked in raking light from inside and outside, because a mark on one face reads as a mark on the pane. Anything missed is redone before the van moves.
What was included
- Between 50 and 60 panes, both faces
- Sliding and patio doors, inside and out
- Glass balustrades to terraces and balconies
- Skylight, washed down and detailed
- Frames and sills
- Sliding door tracks cleared
- Floors protected and furniture put back
- Glass checked in raking light before leaving
The result
Being straight with you about a job this size
A villa with sixty panes done on both faces is a full day for two people, and we would rather quote it that way than turn up with half the time it needs and rush the last elevation. If someone has priced the same property at a couple of hours, they are either not counting the inside or not counting the balustrades.
The other honest limit is hard water. Most mineral spotting comes off. Some of it has been drying on the same panel for long enough that it has etched into the surface, and at that point the marking is in the glass rather than on it. Cleaning improves it and will not remove it, and we will tell you which panes are which at the survey rather than after.
Common questions
How long does a villa window clean take, inside and out?
This one was six hours with two of us on it, for somewhere between fifty and sixty panes done on both faces, plus the glass balustrades and the skylight. Doing both faces is not double the work of an exterior clean, it is closer to two and a half times, because the inside brings furniture, floor protection and blinds into the job.
Do you clean glass balustrades as well as windows?
Yes, and on a villa like this one they are a real part of the job rather than an afterthought. A balcony panel has two faces exposed to the weather instead of one, sits right where the wind puts salt and sprinkler spray, and is at eye level from the terrace, so it is the glass you actually look through most.
Do you have to move furniture to clean the inside?
Some of it, and we do it rather than asking you to. Anything shifted goes back exactly where it was. Floors get protected under the working area, because the mess from an interior glass clean is water on the floor rather than anything on the glass.
Is it worth doing inside and out at the same time?
Usually yes. Cleaning one face makes the other one obvious, and a pane is only really clean when both sides are. It is also cheaper as one visit than as two, because most of the setup time is spent once instead of twice.
Do you cover Quinta do Lago?
Yes. Quinta do Lago sits at the centre of our core round along with Vale do Lobo, Vilamoura, Almancil, Loulé and Quarteira, so it is a local job for us rather than a trip.
