The clean
Pure water. Nothing else.
The method isn’t a gimmick. It’s why the finish lasts, why nothing touches your house but water and a soft brush, and why a bit of rain doesn’t matter.
What pure water is
Tap water looks clean, but it carries dissolved minerals — calcium, magnesium, the things that leave a white crust on a kettle. When a drop of tap water dries on glass, the water goes and the minerals stay. That is a spot. Streaks are the same thing in a line.
Pure water is tap water run through filters until those minerals are gone. It’s measured in parts per million of dissolved solids: Gloucestershire tap water arrives somewhere around 200 to 300, and mine leaves the filters reading zero. With nothing left in it, there is nothing to leave behind. The glass dries clear on its own, with no wiping, no squeegee and no detergent.
Why no detergent matters
Detergent does lift dirt, but it never rinses away completely. The faint film it leaves is exactly what the next four weeks of dust and pollen stick to. Pure water leaves nothing at all — so the glass tends to stay cleaner for longer between visits, and nothing runs off into your borders or down the drain except water.
The method
Brush, rinse, walk away.
A water-fed pole with a soft brush on the end, fed with pure water from the vehicle. Every pane gets the same three steps.
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Frames and sills first
The brush scrubs the frames, the sills and the glazed doors as well as the glass. Dirt sits on the frames far more than the glass, and it is what washes down onto clean windows in the rain — so it goes first.
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Then the glass
Scrubbed with the brush, then rinsed with a steady flow of pure water from the top down. Every bit of loosened dirt is carried off the bottom edge.
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Left to dry
No wiping. The film of pure water left on the glass dries to nothing, because there is nothing in it. It looks wet when I leave and spotless twenty minutes later.
Weather
Yes, I work in a drizzle.
Rain doesn’t mark windows. Rainwater is soft — it has almost nothing dissolved in it, which is why it collects so well in a butt. What marks a window after rain is the dirt already sitting on the frames and sills, washed down onto the glass. After a pure-water clean the frames are clean too, so there is nothing to wash down.
So light rain changes nothing about the result, and I carry on. It also means a shower an hour after I’ve left won’t undo the job.
When I do stop
- Heavy rain — I can’t see the finish properly, and neither could you.
- High wind — a pole at three storeys needs a steady hand, and so does the glass.
- Ice — pure water freezes like any other, and frozen poles are dangerous.
On those days I move the visit and text everyone affected with the new date. You are never charged for a clean that didn’t happen.
What it means for you
Kind to the house, the garden and the glass.
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No ladders on your walls
Everything up to about three storeys is reached from the ground. No marks on the render, no trampled borders, no one at your bedroom window.
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Nothing into the garden
No detergent, no chemicals, no run-off. What goes onto your beds and down your drains is water, and only water.
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The whole window, every time
Frames, sills and glazed doors are part of every visit, not an extra — because clean frames are what keep the glass clean.
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Spot-free, without wiping
No squeegee lines, no cloth marks, no film. The glass dries by itself, to nothing.
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Cleaner for longer
With nothing left on the glass for dirt to cling to, it stays cleaner between visits.
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Safe for everything glazed
Leaded lights, Georgian bars, conservatory sides, glazed doors: the brush is soft and the water is pure, so nothing is scratched or stained.
The first clean is different
Windows that haven’t been done for a while carry a build-up on the frames and sills — the black in the corners, the green on the north side — that takes two or three passes to shift. So the first clean takes longer and is priced for that, and I say so before I start. Every clean after it is a maintenance clean at your regular price: the frames stay clean, so the glass does too.
Some marks won’t come off with cleaning — paint, cement, scratches, a double-glazing seal that has blown and let the mist in. I’ll point those out rather than charge you for trying.
See the difference