High windows are cleaned from the ground, not from a ladder. Professionals use a squeegee on a telescopic pole up to roughly nine metres, and above that a soft brush on a water-fed pole running purified water. A ladder is the last resort on a domestic job and is not used at all on commercial frontage.
What do window cleaners use to clean high windows?
Four things, in this order. A telescopic pole, which is aluminium and extends in sections. A stainless-steel squeegee channel on the end of it, holding a rubber blade. A microfibre washer sleeve to wet the glass and lift the dirt before the blade removes it. And, above three storeys, a purified-water supply that replaces the squeegee entirely.
Which of those you need is set by one number: the height of the highest pane.
The order the tools are used in
- Wet the glass. A microfibre washer sleeve on a T-bar, charged from a bucket, loosens the dirt and keeps the pane wet.
- Work the edges. Dirt collects where the glass meets the frame, and that is what shows once the pane dries.
- Pull the water off. A stainless-steel squeegee channel with a rubber blade, in one continuous stroke per pass.
- Overlap each stroke. Roughly 20 mm into the previous one, or a line is left behind on every pass.
- Detail the sill. The water has to go somewhere, and on interior work it goes on the floor unless it is caught.
That sequence is the same at 2 m and at 9 m. What changes with height is how hard step three becomes.
What is the best tool to clean high windows?
Up to about 4 m, a squeegee on a pole is the best tool and nothing else comes close on cost. Between 4 m and 9 m it still works but gets harder, because the pole flexes and the blade wanders off flat. Above 9 m a squeegee is the wrong tool: the water dries before you can reach it, and a water-fed brush is the only practical method. Reach is quoted at full extension, and a pole is worked at an angle, so allow roughly a metre less than the figure on the box.
The choice between those two methods is worth making before buying a pole, because they do not use the same equipment.
How do window cleaners clean windows at height on tall buildings?
Beyond the reach of any pole — high-rise and skyscraper glass — the work moves to rope access or a suspended cradle, and that is a different trade with its own certification. Pole work covers everything below it, which is the large majority of South African residential, shopfront and low-rise commercial glass.
For the equipment itself, see high reach window cleaning equipment, which sets out the reach needed for each storey height, and telescopic window cleaning poles for the poles. Where purified water is the answer instead, see water fed poles.