Chandelier cleaning in a two-story foyer comes down to reaching the fixture safely. Once someone is up there, each crystal drop and prism is unhooked and washed by hand, the glass shades are cleaned, the frame is wiped and any dead bulbs are swapped out. The hard part is the height: a foyer chandelier hangs 18 to 22 feet over a tile or hardwood floor, and it collects dust for years because no household ladder reaches it safely.
We clean chandeliers and other high fixtures across Metro Detroit, and the foyer fixture is the one people ask about. It's indoor work, so we do it all winter.
Where all the two-story foyers come from
The two-story entry is a feature of one building era, and some towns got a lot of it. In Novi, about two in five housing units went up between 1990 and 2009, and the median home dates from 1993. Canton matches it, with 41 percent from those two decades and a median of 1991. Both figures come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2020 to 2024.
Those years produced the standard subdivision colonial: an entry open to the second floor, an arched window over the door and, in a lot of them, a chandelier hanging in the open space. Our Novi window cleaning page covers the subdivisions between Novi Road and Island Lake, and the Canton page covers the later builds near Canton Center, Sheldon and Ford Road. In West Bloomfield, entry foyers under twenty-foot ceilings with a chandelier in the middle are common, as our West Bloomfield page describes. Northville Township has the same layout in its 1990s and 2000s subdivisions near Beck Road and Seven Mile.
What a chandelier cleaning involves
Here is the job from start to finish, part by part.
Part of the visit | What happens |
|---|---|
Before anything comes off | The power goes off at the wall switch, and at the breaker panel too if the fixture needs it. Drop cloths go over the floor, the stair treads and any furniture below. |
Crystal drops and prisms | On a real crystal fixture, every piece is unhooked, washed by hand and rehung in its own spot. |
Glass shades | Taken down, washed and put back. |
Frame, arms and canopy | Dusted, then wiped, working from the canopy down. |
Bulbs | We test every socket and swap out the dead bulbs before the equipment comes down. |
Loose or broken pieces | Loose crystals and pins get pushed back into place when possible. If a piece is cracked or gone, we show you. |
Two things to sort out before the visit. First, the bulbs: foyer fixtures commonly take candelabra bulbs, and if you have a brand or color you like, set them out for us or let us know the bulb type before we come. Second, the winch: some fixtures hang on one and can come down to the floor, and that speeds the job up. Plenty of homeowners only find out theirs has one when someone climbs up and checks.
We don't rewire fixtures. If a socket or the wiring has a problem, we'll tell you, and that part goes to an electrician.
How to tell your chandelier is due
You can't see the dust from the floor, so watch for the side effects:
The entry looks dim even after new bulbs. Crystal sparkles because it bends and splits light. A grey film soaks up that light before it leaves the fixture, so brighter bulbs barely help.
Several bulbs are out. Candelabra bulbs fail one at a time, and since each one means the same climb, the dead ones pile up.
It looks grey from the upstairs landing. In a two-story foyer, the balcony or stair landing is the one spot level with the fixture. If the crystal looks dull from there, it's dirty.
A heating season has passed. Forced-air heat runs from November into March with the windows shut, and the dust it stirs up drifts up and lands on the highest things in the house.
A kitchen or dining fixture feels tacky. Cooking grease mixes with dust into a film that a duster won't lift. Those fixtures do better with two cleanings a year.
For a foyer fixture, once a year is the right rhythm, and spring is the best time because the heating season just ended. A fixture in a formal room nobody uses can go two years.
Why a household ladder is the wrong tool
The problem is the floor, more than the height. A foyer chandelier hangs over tile or hardwood, and in plenty of homes it hangs out past the edge of the stairs. OSHA's portable ladder safety card says a ladder goes only on a stable and level surface, never on boxes, barrels or other unstable bases to gain height. Stair treads aren't level, and a plank laid across them is exactly the unstable base that rule describes.
The same card says a stepladder must never be used partly closed or leaned against a wall like a straight ladder, and nobody should stand on the top step unless it was built for standing. A six-foot stepladder on a foyer floor leaves a twenty-foot fixture far out of reach anyway. Then there are the three points of contact. OSHA wants two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand, on the ladder while you climb, and a person holding a crystal prism in one hand and a cloth in the other has neither.
Ladder injuries are common. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates about 273,000 emergency department visits in 2024 involved ladders and stools, in its latest injury report. A fall onto a tile foyer floor is a bad one.
We bring the access equipment the room needs, and the floor and stairs get covered before any crystal comes down.
Sprays and other shortcuts
There's a faster method sold in a spray can: soak the fixture with cleaner, put a sheet on the floor and let it drip dry. On a simple glass fixture over carpet, it can be good enough. It has real limits, though:
It drips onto whatever is below, and in a foyer that's hardwood or tile.
It doesn't cut kitchen grease.
It leaves the metal frame and canopy dirty.
It puts liquid on a fixture with sockets in it.
For real crystal, we unhook the pieces and wash each one by hand. It takes longer, and it reaches the frame and every piece.
While the equipment is up
Setting up safely under a high fixture is the slow part of the visit, so it's worth adding the other high jobs in the same space. Ceiling fans under a vaulted ceiling, a high plant ledge, the top trim of a tall window and a glass stair rail all go quickly once we're set up. Mirrors can go on the same visit too.
The arched window over a foyer door is the other thing people can't reach from inside, and our window cleaning covers it inside and out. Interior window cleaning and chandelier cleaning are both indoor work, so both keep going after the outside season ends in November. You can see everything we do on our services page.
How chandelier cleaning is priced
Each fixture gets its own price, set by its height, the setup it needs, the number of pieces that come off, and whether a winch can bring it down. A small glass fixture over the dining table and a tiered crystal fixture in a twenty-foot foyer don't take the same time or setup.
A picture of the fixture taken from below, with an idea of how high the ceiling is, can let us price it without coming out. The full service is on our chandelier cleaning page.
Questions people ask
Can I clean a crystal chandelier myself?
Yes, if it hangs low enough to reach from a stepladder standing open on a level floor, like a dining room fixture. Turn the power off and let the bulbs cool first. A foyer chandelier eighteen feet or more above tile or over the stairs is a different job, and a household ladder can't reach it safely.
How do I know if my chandelier can be lowered?
Some foyer chandeliers hang on a winch, with a crank or switch that lowers the fixture to the floor. It isn't always obvious from below. If you don't know whether yours has one, ask us to check at the quote, because a fixture that lowers is quicker and simpler to clean.
Should the power be off when a chandelier is cleaned?
Yes. Switch it off at the wall before anyone touches the fixture, and at the breaker when the fixture or its wiring calls for it. Let the bulbs cool before handling the crystal around them. Liquid and live sockets don't mix, which is one more reason to avoid soaking a fixture with spray.
What is the best time of year for chandelier cleaning?
Spring is best, because the heating season that put the dust there has just ended. It's indoor work, so it can be done in any month, including December before guests arrive. Kitchen and dining fixtures do better with a second cleaning later in the year, since cooking film builds up all year.
Get a quote
Send us a picture of the fixture from below and tell us about how high the ceiling is, and we'll price it. We've been owner-operated in Northville since 2014, we're rated 5.0 on Google, and you can read the reviews first. When you're ready, Get a Free Quote.
