Window Cleaning in Lane Cove

Lane Cove's window problems come from the reserve rather than from the road.

Bushland pushes up the gullies between the streets and wraps the suburb along the river, so turpentine, blue gum and angophora canopy frequently sits directly above these windows. Sap and honeydew drip down as sticky spotting that smears under a cloth, and spring pollen bonds to the glass when damp. Webs are rebuilt in corners and along frames within days.

Because the land falls steeply toward the river, houses step down their blocks and the largest windows are on the downhill elevation, two or three storeys above a terrace, retaining wall or bushland where a ladder has no safe footing.

Around the village the stock is walk-ups and newer apartments, where upper-level glass and balcony doors are rarely cleaned because ladder work over common property is restricted. Those buildings also sit under the same canopy.

Windows on the shaded side, which here means most of them, grow a green film on frames and in the sill drainage channels.

Water-fed poles reach it all from the ground, and purified water dissolves sap and pollen and dries clear with no spotting.

The obstacle to clean windows in Lane Cove is rarely the dirt. It is access, and that applies on both sides of the suburb.

On the houses, the glass worth cleaning faces the gully and sits well above ground at the rear, over a slope or retaining wall. It is not a domestic ladder job, and it is usually the reason the house was oriented that way in the first place.

On the strata blocks, ladder work over common paths and garden beds is generally restricted and rarely safe, which is why upper-level glass on so many buildings goes uncleaned for years. Reaching three storeys from the ground removes both the access problem and the work-at-heights exposure the building would otherwise carry, and clean glass across a facade is a cheap way to lift how a block presents.

Sap and honeydew are the reason a hose disappoints. They are sticky and organic, so rinsing spreads them and detergent residue attracts the next round within days.

Frames and sill drainage are worth including, since a green film holding moisture against joinery is how water eventually gets inside.