Pre-holiday window cleaning on an Alberta Arts District bungalow

The call came from a 1920s bungalow two blocks off NE Alberta — the kind with original double-hungs, a covered front porch, and a string-light plan already sketched on a napkin. They wanted the glass done before the crew showed up to hang lights the following week.

Smart timing. We see it every December in the Alberta Arts District.

The house

Single-story Craftsman bungalow on a 50-foot lot, mature street trees on both sides, original wood sash on the front and a 1990s vinyl replacement run on the back addition. Painted cedar siding that catches road dust from Alberta traffic. North-facing kitchen windows that never see direct sun.

The homeowner had cleaned the living room and front bedroom themselves in 2021. Everything else was on the “next spring” list until spring became two years ago.

What we found

We cleaned 22 exterior panes plus four skylights on the back addition:

• North kitchen windows — a film of cooking grease residue mixed with street dust, worse on the lower third where the exhaust fan vents nearby
• Front porch casements — pollen and spider webbing in the upper corners, invisible until you are on a ladder three feet away
• Back addition vinyl — hard water spotting from the irrigation overspray hitting the lower sills every morning
• Skylights — fir needle debris dried into the flashing seams, not a leak yet but worth noting

Total time on site: about two hours with a crew of two. We use a pure-water pole system on most panes and hand-detail the casements and skylights where the frame geometry does not cooperate with a pole brush.

Why December beats January for this work

A lot of Alberta homeowners wait until after the holidays to deal with exterior glass. That works if you are not hanging lights.

If you are putting up Christmas lights — or paying someone to — clean windows first. Light clips need a clean surface to grip. Dirty glass shows every bulb reflection. And nobody wants a window crew working around a finished light display in January rain.

Our holiday prep guide puts window cleaning on the same week as gutter clearing for tree-heavy lots. This bungalow skipped the gutters — they had been done in October — but the window timing was right.

What we sent them

Before-and-after photos of each elevation, a note about the skylight flashing debris, and a reminder that the north kitchen film will come back faster without adjusting the exhaust fan damper. No upsell — just what we saw.

If you are in Alberta or anywhere on the east side and want clean glass before the holiday install window closes, call for a free written quote. We measure on site and give you one price before any work starts: 503-995-1947.