A ground-level window check before you book

Start with the view you use every day

You do not need a building survey to book ordinary window cleaning. If the home and service option are straightforward, you can choose the appropriate booking and get on with your day. A short check is useful when you are unsure which surfaces need attention or one window seems different from the rest.

Begin indoors, looking at the windows you normally see from a chair, desk or doorway. Then look at accessible outside elevations from the ground. The purpose is to notice and describe, not to prove that a pane can be reached or investigate a suspected defect yourself.

Put observations into three groups

Use three headings on a phone note: surface cleaning, access question and condition concern. A window can appear in more than one group, but keeping the headings separate prevents an unclear request such as 'fix all the windows'.

• Surface cleaning: ordinary smears, dust or dirt on a face you can identify.
• Access question: glazing behind fixed furniture, above a stairwell or beyond a lower roof.
• Condition concern: a known crack, a loose fitting, a leak or a mark whose position is uncertain.

These are enquiry categories, not diagnoses. For example, writing 'cloudy area visible through the bedroom pane' is more useful than deciding that it is definitely dirt. If you cannot tell whether a mark is inside, outside or within the glazing, keep that uncertainty in the note.

Give each observation a location

Use a room or feature that another person will recognise: kitchen door, front bedroom window or roof window above the landing. Avoid descriptions that depend on where you happen to be standing, such as 'the one on the left', unless you also state the viewpoint.

A wide photograph can help with an unusual layout, but it is not a requirement for every standard booking. If you take one, show the window and its surroundings from somewhere you can stand normally. Do not climb, lean out or move a heavy object just to complete the note. HSE's window-cleaning guidance treats access and the working position as part of planning the job; a close-up of the pane alone cannot explain either.

A hypothetical example

Imagine a household notices fingerprints on patio doors, general dirt on the outside windows and a high pane above an enclosed stairwell. The useful result is not one long list of guessed cleaning methods. It is three clear observations with different next steps.

This is an illustrative household, not a report of a customer job. The important feature is that the difficult pane does not turn every ordinary window into a complicated enquiry. It simply receives the extra clarification it needs.

Turn the note into a small action list

Choose the service first. Our domestic window-cleaning information explains the general household service, while internal window cleaning covers inside glass. If you want both faces, say so rather than assuming one booking includes the other.

Next, flag only the details that could change the agreed work: the unusual pane, restricted route or known condition concern. You do not need to send a diary of every speck. If you are arranging regular external window cleaning, the minimum commitment is four cleans. A one-off window clean is a separate choice and should not inherit that commitment.

Finally, keep the note. After the agreed work, it gives you a clear record of what was requested and which questions remained separate. Add a new observation when something changes; there is no need to rebuild the whole list before every visit.

Choose your next step

View regular exterior window cleaning