What window cleaning includes — and what to settle before you book

"Window cleaning" is not a standardised service

Two quotes for window cleaning can describe entirely different jobs. One counts the pane; the other counts the pane, the frame, the sash and the sill. The difference rarely shows in the price per window. It shows when the work is finished.

There is no industry standard deciding what is included, so the only reliable method is to describe the job yourself, in the same words to every company you ask.

The four things that drive the time

Price follows time, and time is almost always driven by the same four things:

• The number of glass surfaces, not the number of windows. A coupled double window to be cleaned between the panes is four surfaces, not two — and has to be taken apart.
• Glazing bars. True glazing bars (fixed bars between small panes) are the single most time-consuming feature in an ordinary home. Removable bars that sit against the inside of the glass are much faster.
• Whether frames and sashes are included. Wiping frames is a separate step, not a detail of cleaning the glass.
• Access. Windows that cannot be reached from inside or from the ground are a different kind of job — see windows you cannot reach yourself.

What is usually excluded unless you agree otherwise

• Blinds, insect screens and mosquito nets
• Glazing that is not a window: patio doors, glass balustrades, greenhouses, roof windows
• Cleaning between the panes of coupled windows
• Removing paint spatter, limescale or etching in the glass — a different job from cleaning, and not always fixable
• Moving furniture to get access

None of these exclusions is unreasonable. They only become a problem when nobody mentioned them in advance.

Five questions to answer in your enquiry

1. How many glass surfaces, and how many of them have glazing bars?
2. Should frames and sashes be wiped?
3. Inside, outside, or both?
4. Can every window be opened and reached from inside?
5. Is there anything to be cleaned that is not a window?

With those answers the quotes become comparable, and the company no longer has to price for the worst case.

RUT applies to window cleaning — but only in the home

The Swedish Tax Agency lists cleaning windows as an example of the simpler cleaning work that qualifies for the RUT deduction, and states that the work must be carried out in, or in close proximity to, the home. (Source: Skatteverket, Ger arbetet rätt till rutavdrag?)

That boundary has a practical consequence that surprises many people in apartment buildings: the Tax Agency states explicitly that cleaning shared spaces in a multi-dwelling building — a stairwell or a communal laundry room, for instance — does not qualify. Your own windows qualify; the housing association's stairwell windows do not, and are normally ordered by the association as a business customer.

How the deduction works otherwise — the cap, invoicing, who may use it — is covered in our guide to the RUT deduction for cleaning.

Find companies that clean windows where you live

Describe the job once and it reaches the companies that actually cover your municipality: window cleaning municipality by municipality.