Frequently asked questions

For most homes in Utrecht, every four weeks is the point at which the glass never actually gets to look dirty. If your home sits quieter, on a green belt or outside the city, eight weeks is usually plenty. On a busy through road or next to a building site, four weeks is the minimum.

Not for the outside, as long as we can reach the back. For interiors you obviously do; we plan those for a half-day that suits you and confirm the day before.

We come anyway. Rain is clean water; it is dust and exhaust that dirty glass, not the shower. We only move the visit for storms or frost, because working at height is then unsafe and water freezes on the glass.

No. There is no contract and no notice period. A regular interval is cheaper because we fold you into an existing round, but you can skip any visit or stop at any time with a single message.

Yes, and for shops and hospitality it is the default. We usually start at 06:00 or 07:00 so the frontage is clean before the first customer arrives. Evening work is possible too, at a surcharge stated up front in the quote.

Yes. We carry public liability insurance and send the policy schedule and the VCA safety certificate with the quote, so your procurement or facilities team has a complete file straight away.

For those we bring in a cherry picker, or we work from the facade installation already on the roof. It appears as a separate line in the quote, including any parking dispensation from the city of Utrecht. See also our page on high-rise window cleaning.

Yes. Send us the current scope of work and we will quote for exactly the same scope, so the board is comparing like with like. If we think something is missing from the current description, we add it underneath as a separate optional item.

The outside gets done regardless; nobody needs to be in for that. If it concerns interior work in the communal areas or a home that was on the list, we note it in the report and agree one catch-up slot per round.

Yes, and it saves money because the cherry picker then comes once instead of twice. We put gutter cleaning and facade cleaning in the same quote as separate optional items, so the meeting can decide on them independently.

On old pointing and soft brick: yes, which is exactly why we work at low pressure as standard. We only use high pressure on concrete and hard engineering brick. If we are unsure about the substrate we clean a test patch first and you decide afterwards.

Without impregnation, two to four years on average, depending on the aspect: a north wall under trees dirties faster than a south wall in full sun. Impregnation typically adds a couple of years to that.

No. Planting along the wall is covered before we start and we rinse the soil around it afterwards. If there is something delicate right against the wall, mention it at the survey and we will work around it.

On lightly dusted panels the difference is small. Where it does add up is a caked bottom edge, moss growth or bird droppings: those shade part of the cells and drag the whole panel down. We do not promise a fixed percentage — anyone who does is making it up. What we do is point you at your own inverter app so you can compare before and after yourself.

Not with the method we use. Manufacturers almost always exclude high pressure, aggressive chemicals and abrasive materials — and those are exactly the things we do not use. If your supplier asks, we will put our method in writing.

No, and that is deliberate. Walking a tiled roof breaks tiles, and you must never stand on a panel itself. We work from the ground with a telescopic pole, or from a scaffold when the roof is too tall or too steep.

Late November or early December, once the leaves are down. Do it in October and the gutter will be full again by January. With conifers or a plane tree nearby, twice a year is wiser: once in spring and once after leaf fall.

Yes. Up to about two storeys we work off a ladder; above that with a cherry picker or a facade installation. That appears as a separate line in the quote, because equipment hire is a real cost and we do not bury it in an hourly rate.

Small things we do on the spot: tighten a bracket, seal a joint, fit a leaf guard. If a section of gutter needs replacing or the fascia has rotted, that is a carpenter’s job and we say so plainly rather than making a half-job of it.

In most cases yes, provided it is surface deposit. If the uPVC itself has discoloured through years of UV, we can bring it a long way back but not all the way — and we say so beforehand, with a test patch on one frame, rather than promising a result that is not there.

We can, but it rarely makes sense: clean glass in a dirty frame only draws the eye more, and the reverse just as much. That is why frame cleaning usually sits as an option inside the window-cleaning quote, at a lower rate than a dedicated visit.

No. Seals are damaged by aggressive chemicals and by drying out. We clean them and then dress them with a product that keeps the rubber supple, so the window keeps closing and no draught develops.

Yes. We submit the application to the city of Utrecht and build the processing time into the schedule. The council fee appears as a separate pass-through item in the quote, so you can see what you pay us and what goes to the council.

Yes, provided the inspection is current. We ask for the inspection report before we start. If it has lapsed we will not use the installation and we propose a cherry picker instead — liability for an uninspected cradle ultimately sits with the building, and neither of us wants that.

Limited, as long as they know. We give at least a week’s notice of which elevation is being done when, so people can close their curtains that day. Each elevation usually takes half a day to a day.

For a shopfront or a house we try to be there within two working days, because fresh paint comes off far more easily than paint that has had a month in the sun. So report it straight away rather than when it happens to suit.

On glass, tile and coated metal, almost never. On porous brick and render, sometimes — especially with paint that has been there for months. We say so before we start, based on the test patch, rather than explaining afterwards why it is not quite gone.

Yes. Shutters, loading doors, waste containers, bike stores and substations are regular work for property managers and businesses. With several objects on one site we price the lot together, which is cheaper because we are there anyway.

As short a time as possible, and certainly within a few weeks of the bricklaying and plastering. Cement haze that has been through a season of sun and rain has etched into the surface; from that point the outcome is uncertain and sometimes replacement is the only answer. That is hundreds of euros per pane.

That is why we photograph what we find before we start. Scratches from a trowel, scaffolding or a sander are often there before we arrive, and without that record it always ends up as one party’s word against another’s. With the record it is a fact.

Yes, and it is most of this work. We schedule on the day that fits the build programme, supply a work sheet per plot number and invoice the contractor or the property manager directly, whichever was agreed. Across several plots on one project we price the lot together.

Concrete and clay pavers take high pressure perfectly well. Soft natural stone and old, weathered slabs do not always: they can pit or roughen, and rough slabs then go green faster than before. So we set the pressure per substrate and clean one slab first.

No, it is in our price. It is the step many firms skip because it shows nothing on the day, but an emptied joint is exactly why a patio is full of weeds within two years and slabs start to sink.

Yes, and it is almost always cheaper. The machine is there anyway, and the rinse water off the facade lands on the patio regardless — so doing it in that order saves you a second call-out and a second clear-up.