When people picture window cleaning, they picture glass. It makes sense, because the glass is the part you look through and the part that shows marks.
But clean glass sitting in a dirty frame never quite looks right, and the parts around the glass are where most of the actual problems start. Tracks, sills and frames all collect things that glass does not.
Tracks Collect Everything and Hold It
The bottom track of a sliding window or door is effectively a channel running along the outside of your home. Grit, sand, leaf litter and insect debris all end up in there, and because the track is recessed, nothing washes it out.
Over time that build-up does two things. It makes the window progressively harder to slide, and it holds moisture against the frame long after the rest of the window has dried.
Sills Are Where Water Sits
A sill is designed to shed water away from the building, but only if it is clear. Once dirt and debris collect along it, water pools instead of running off.
On the shaded side of a house, or anywhere with limited airflow, that standing moisture is where mould and mildew take hold first. It is also why a sill can look grubby again within weeks of a quick wipe, because the wipe removed the surface mark and left what was causing it.
Frames Are Not All the Same
How a frame should be cleaned depends entirely on what it is made of:
- Aluminium frames are hard-wearing but pit over time in coastal areas, where salt attacks the surface.
- Powder-coated frames can be dulled permanently by anything abrasive, so they need a gentler approach.
- Timber frames on older homes need care around the putty and paintwork, and should never be soaked.
This is one of the reasons a single technique applied to every window is rarely the right answer, particularly on the period homes around Geelong West, Newtown and Queenscliff.
What Usually Gets Skipped in a Quick Clean
If you have ever cleaned your own windows and been disappointed a fortnight later, the explanation is usually that the glass was cleaned and nothing else was. Dirt left in the tracks and along the sills runs back down the pane with the first rain, and the window looks much the same as it did before.
What a Professional Clean Should Include
Our standard residential window cleaning covers the glass inside and out, plus frames, sills, tracks and flyscreens. Doing all of it together is what makes the result last, rather than looking good for a week and then going backwards.
Excel Window Cleaning has been cleaning homes and businesses across Geelong, the Surf Coast and the Bellarine since 2002. Call 1300 962 791 or get a free quote.
