How to Estimate Window Cleaning Jobs: Panes, Access, Screens

Short answer: To estimate window cleaning jobs, count in pane units, not windows. Counted the usual way, a double-hung with a storm is three units, not one. Then classify the access — ground, extension ladder, water-fed pole, lift, or rope descent — because the same pane takes several times longer thirty feet up. Add screens, tracks, and sills by count, price hard-water or post-construction glass as its own line after a test pane, and apply a minimum that covers the drive.

Two cleaners can walk the same house and come back with numbers forty percent apart, and the reason is almost never the hourly rate. It is the count. One of them counted windows and the other counted sides of glass, and one of them noticed the storm windows.

What can I quote from the phone, and what needs a walk?

A repeat storefront on a route, yes. A house you have never seen, no.

The phone estimate that works is a photo estimate with rules attached: one picture of each side of the building from far enough back that every window is in frame, plus one of the tallest glass with a door or a person for scale. Give a range from those and say in writing that it is confirmed on arrival. A flat price given from a verbal description is where a two-hour job turns into six.

Anything with height, glass over a roof line, a stairwell window, mineral staining, or a commercial account gets a walk.

How do I count panes so two people get the same number?

Use one method every time and write it down the same way every time.

Start at the front door, walk the exterior clockwise, and record a count per elevation — front, right, back, left — rather than one house total. Then go inside and count again, because the interior count is rarely the same. A window behind a built-in bookcase, a stairwell window over a landing, and a garage window blocked by shelving are all interior problems that do not show from outside.

A pane unit is your baseline: one side of one piece of glass, at ground level, standard residential size, no grids. Everything else is a multiple of that. Keep the sheet — a photographed count sheet is what you argue from when the customer says the number changed.

Which glass counts as more than one pane unit?

Glass	Counts as	Why
Single or double hung	2 units per side	Each sash is its own pass, and the upper sash has to come down
Storm window over a sash	+1 unit, plus removal time	Separate piece of glass, often painted shut or corroded
Slider with two panels	2 units per side	Same as a hung, without the sash lift
Large picture window	1.5 to 2 units	More glass per pass and a wide-body squeegee stroke
True divided lite, 6-over-6	12 units	Count lites, not sashes — this is detail work
Grids sealed between the panes	1 unit	Nothing extra, the glass is flat
Snap-in grids left in place	1 unit plus detailing	The customer will check the corners
Sidelights and transom at a door	1 unit each	Small, awkward, and always noticed
French door	Count the lites	A single door can be twelve units
Skylight	Its own line	Roof access, not window access

The divided-lite row is the one that eats days. A single Colonial-style front elevation with true divided lites can carry more units than the entire back of the house, and it is invisible in a phone photo.

How do I classify the access before I price the labor?

Access is a price class, not an adjustment. Set the class first, then apply the pane count inside it.

Access class	How you reach the glass	What it changes
Ground	Standing, step stool	Baseline rate
Extension ladder	Second story, exterior	Setup and reposition per window dominates the time
Water-fed pole	Exterior only, from the ground	Fast on flat glass, no ladder setup, needs pure water and drying time
Lift	Scissor or boom, commercial	Rental, delivery, ground condition, operator time, and a certificate of insurance
Rope descent	High-rise exterior	A different business with its own rules

One note on the pole: it leaves glass to dry spot-free and never touches the frame, which is why it is the wrong tool on an old wood sash that leaks around the glazing. Ask before you soak a hundred-year-old house.

Rope descent is not a rate, it is a regulatory category. Under OSHA 1910.27, before an employee uses a rope descent system the building owner must inform the employer in writing that each anchorage has been identified, tested, certified, and maintained to hold at least 5,000 pounds in any direction per attached employee, based on annual inspection and certification at least every ten years — and the employer keeps that information for the duration of the job. The same rule bars rope descent above 300 feet from grade except in narrow circumstances. No anchorage letter, no bid.

What do screens, tracks, and sills add to the count?

Each is a separate count on your sheet, because each is separate time.

• Screens. Removing, washing, drying, and rehanging is a per-screen operation, and rehanging is slower than removing. Old aluminum frames and brittle spline break in your hands, so put a line in the estimate saying you note pre-existing damage and do not replace screens that fail on removal.
• Storm windows. Count separately from the sash behind them. A painted-shut storm is a labor decision made on site, not a favor.
• Tracks and sills. Vacuum, brush, wipe. This is what a customer means by “they still look dirty” after the glass is spotless. Price it per window and let them choose.
• Frames. Wiping a frame is not the same as detailing it. Say which one you quoted.

When is the glass a restoration job instead of a cleaning?

The moment it stops responding to soap and a blade.

Sprinkler overspray, hard-water scale, construction fallout, stucco splatter, and paint specks are restoration work: acid or cerium treatment, mechanical polishing, or careful scraping, priced by the pane and never bundled into a cleaning rate. Two rules keep this from becoming a dispute. Do a test pane first, photograph it before and after, and quote the rest of the house from that result. And put the limits in writing — some etching is permanent, and scraping tempered glass carries a real risk of scratching from debris fused into the surface during manufacture.

Fogged glass between the panes is not a cleaning problem at all. That is a failed seal, and the answer is a glass company. Photograph it before you touch it.

What do I photograph and what do I ask while I am standing there?

Photograph each elevation wide enough to recount later. The tallest glass with something for scale. The ground under every second-story window — flowerbeds, decks, slopes, condensers, and bay roofs are all ladder problems that cost time. The stairwell window from inside. Every scratch, chip, failed seal, and torn screen, before you start, because pre-existing damage is the most common argument in this trade.

Then ask:

• Inside and out, or exterior only?
• Are the screens coming off, and do you want them washed or just wiped?
• Do you have storm windows, and do they open?
• Any windows that are painted shut or do not lock?
• Tracks and sills included, or glass only?
• When was this last done, and by whom?
• One time, or on a schedule?
• Where is the outside spigot, and where can I park?
• Is anything under construction, or has anyone painted recently?

The last question is worth its own beat. Post-construction is a different job with a different rate, a different sequence, and stickers and silicone that come off one blade pass at a time.

How do the counts turn into a price?

Time each access class on jobs you already do, then price from your own minutes.

Take one finished job and divide it: crew-minutes on the ground-level exterior, divided by ground-level units, gives your real minutes per unit. Do the same for ladder work and for interior, and expect those three numbers to be further apart than you think. Multiply each class’s units by its own minutes, add setup and teardown, and you have crew-hours. Multiply those by your loaded hourly cost — wages plus burden, the van, the pure-water system and filters, insurance, and the overhead that hour has to carry.

Then add profit, and be precise about which one. Markup is a percentage of cost; margin is a percentage of price. Adding 40 percent markup to $420 of cost gives $588, which is a 28.6 percent margin. Holding a true 40 percent margin means dividing by 0.60 and quoting $700. Cleaners who think those are the same thing are the ones wondering where the year went.

Two more rules. Every small job needs a minimum covering drive time, setup, and the hour you cannot sell twice — an eleven-pane cottage twenty minutes out is a minimum-charge job or it is a donation. And frequency changes commercial math: on a monthly storefront route the glass never gets bad, so minutes per unit drop and the per-visit price can fall while annual value rises. Put a term and a notice period on that price.

Published per-pane rates move by a factor of two or more between markets, building types, and seasons, so treat any number you find online as a sanity check on your own arithmetic, not a substitute for it.

What happens to the paperwork after they say yes?

The count sheet and the photos become the job record, and the job record becomes the invoice. Send it the day you finish, not on Sunday night — residential glass is a same-day payment trade, and the collection tactics in how to get clients to pay rarely have to come out when the bill arrives while the customer is still looking at the windows. What belongs on it is in what to include on an invoice.

Keel is an iOS app that handles that end from the tailgate: no account, no bank connection, no cloud, no login, and an App Store privacy label reading Data Not Collected. The invoice goes out in about a minute with your own numbering, logo, brand color, and a payment link the customer scans as a QR code off your screen. Receipts for scrim, soap, blades, rubber, and replacement resin get photographed and read on the device by Apple Intelligence, and a route day with nine stops logs its miles as you drive — the record independent contractor mileage log describes. At year end the whole thing exports as a single file. Free covers unlimited invoices, receipts, and mileage; Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

How do you count panes for a window cleaning quote?

Count sides of glass, not windows. A double-hung has two sashes, so it is two units per side and four if you are doing inside and out. A storm window adds another. True divided lites are counted as individual lites, since each one is a separate detail pass. Grids sealed between the panes add nothing.

Should I quote window cleaning by the pane or by the hour?

Quote the customer a total built from pane counts, and keep the hourly number for yourself. Per-pane pricing rewards speed and makes route work predictable. Hourly pricing makes customers watch the clock and punishes you for being fast. Restoration work is the exception, where an hourly or per-pane rate after a test patch is more honest.

Do window cleaners charge extra for screens and tracks?

Yes, and they should be separate lines. Removing, washing, drying, and rehanging screens is per-screen labor, and rehanging takes longer than removing. Tracks and sills are their own operation with a brush and a vacuum. Bundling them into a glass rate means the price rises invisibly, and customers assume they were included anyway.

How do I price second-story windows?

Price them as a different access class rather than adding a percentage. Ladder work is dominated by setup and repositioning, not by the glass itself, so the cost driver is how many times you move the ladder and what is underneath it. A flowerbed, a deck, a bay roof, or an AC unit under a window can double the time for that one opening.

What should a window cleaning estimate exclude?

Hard-water or mineral etching, construction fallout, paint and stucco splatter, and anything needing a blade beyond light spotting. Failed seals with fog between the panes, which cleaning cannot fix. Screens that break on removal. Windows painted shut. Interior glass blocked by furniture the customer has not moved. Naming those in writing is what keeps a surprise from becoming an argument.

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This article is general information, not professional or tax advice.