Here's how to clean high windows safely: work from the ground as long as you can, with an extension pole on the outside and a pole from the floor on the inside. A ladder comes last, set on firm, level footing and never on the stairs. The arched window over a two-story front entry is the hardest one in the house, because the inside of it can sit over the stairs or an open foyer. That one is worth handing to someone with the right equipment.
Where the high glass is around here
Two-story entries with an arched window over the front door came with a lot of the subdivisions around Northville. In Novi, the neighborhoods west of Novi Road and out around Island Lake went up in the 1990s and 2000s, with two-story foyers, an arched Palladian window over the door, transoms above the great room and a back wall that is largely glass. Canton filled in from the 1980s onward off Canton Center, Sheldon and Ford Road, and the later builds there have the same two-story entry with an arched window above it. The colonials in Northville Township off Beck Road and Seven Mile follow the same pattern.
The arched window over the door has a few things working against it. It's fixed, so it never opens or tilts in. It's two stories up on both sides. And grids can split it into small curved panes, each with its own edges to wipe. That's why it goes uncleaned for years after people move in.
The outside, from the ground
For a homeowner, the tool is a telescoping extension pole. Fit it with a strip washer, a soft sleeve that holds soapy water, to scrub the glass, then switch to a squeegee and pull the water off from the top down. On an arch, the straight blade won't follow the curve, so work the rounded top in short passes and catch the edges with a cloth on the pole.
Look up before you raise anything long. OSHA's portable ladder safety card says to check for overhead power lines and keep metal ladders away from them. The American Ladder Institute's guide to choosing a ladder says to reject a metal ladder near electricity because aluminum conducts it, and an aluminum pole conducts the same way.
We clean outside glass with a water-fed pole. It runs filtered, deionized water up to a brush, so the brush scrubs, the water rinses, and the glass dries clear with no squeegee at all. That matters on an arch, where a squeegee is at its worst. The pole reaches second-story glass and the arched window over the entry from the driveway, and a ladder goes up only where a roofline, a deck or a planting bed blocks the angle. Our post on pure water window cleaning explains how the water gets clean enough to dry without spots.
If you go up a ladder outside
Ladders are where high windows get dangerous. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's outdoor repairs checklist notes that people 65 and older are 80 percent more likely than other adults to end up in an emergency room with an injury involving a ladder or a stool. If a ladder is the only way to reach the glass, these rules come straight from OSHA, the CPSC and the American Ladder Institute:
Set it on firm, level ground. OSHA says a ladder goes only on a stable, level surface, and never on boxes, barrels or anything else stacked to gain height.
Get the angle right. OSHA puts the base of an extension ladder a quarter of its working length out from the wall, which works out to one foot out for every four feet of ladder.
Stay off the top. The American Ladder Institute says not to stand on a stepladder's top cap or the step below it, or to climb the top three rungs of an extension ladder.
Keep three points of contact. Two hands and a foot, or two feet and a hand, facing the ladder, per OSHA. The American Ladder Institute adds that nothing in your hands should get in the way of your grip.
Don't reach. The American Ladder Institute's basic rules say to keep your belt buckle between the side rails and never move the ladder while you're on it. Climb down and move it.
Check the duty rating. It's the maximum weight the ladder can carry, and the American Ladder Institute says to count yourself, your clothes and your tools against it.
Get a helper. The CPSC checklist says to have someone hold the bottom of the ladder.
Pick a calm day. The American Ladder Institute says to stay off ladders in high winds.
The inside of a two-story window
The inside is the harder half, and it comes down to what's under the window.
If the floor under it is level and open, a pole from the floor can reach a lot of high glass. A microfiber pad or a small squeegee on the end, with a towel on the sill to catch drips, handles a tall pane without anyone leaving the ground. A stepladder works too, as long as it stands fully open on level floor. OSHA's card says not to use a stepladder partly closed, or folded and leaned against the wall like a straight ladder.
If the window sits over the stairs, a stepladder can't stand level there, and propping one leg on a step breaks OSHA's level-surface rule. The same goes for glass above an open foyer that can only be reached from a landing. That's the point where a household ladder stops being the right tool.
Before any inside work, clear the sill, move what's under the window and cover the floor. Drips off a tall pane run a long way.
When we clean inside glass in a two-story room, we look at the ceiling height and the stairs first, bring equipment suited to that space and put drop cloths down. The glass gets cleaned by hand, and the screens, sills and tracks come with it. If a chandelier hangs in the same foyer, it can be cleaned at the same visit. Our post on chandelier cleaning in two-story foyers covers that job.
When to call someone
Hand the job off when any of these is true:
The inside of the window sits over the stairs or an open foyer.
Reaching the glass would put you on the top of a stepladder or the top three rungs of an extension ladder.
The outside needs a ladder on a deck, a slope or a planting bed.
You'd be climbing with nobody there to hold the ladder.
The arch is split into a dozen small panes, which means a dozen sets of edges to wipe from the ladder.
Arched windows and divided panes take longer to clean, so we count them on their own when we quote. Everything else that comes with a visit is on our residential window cleaning page.
Questions people ask
Can I put a stepladder on the stairs to reach a high window?
No. A stepladder needs firm, level footing, and a staircase can't give it that. OSHA's ladder rules say to use a ladder only on a stable, level surface, and never to build height with boxes or other unstable bases. Glass over a stairwell needs different equipment, or a professional who brings it.
What tool cleans high windows from the ground?
An extension pole. For a homeowner, that means a telescoping pole with a strip washer to scrub and a squeegee to pull the water off from the top down. Window cleaners use a water-fed pole that runs deionized water to a brush, so the glass dries clear on its own. Look for power lines first.
How do you clean the inside of an arched window above the front door?
It depends on what's under it. With a level, open floor below, a pole from the floor or a fully opened stepladder can reach it. When the window sits over the stairs or an open foyer, a household ladder has no safe footing, and the job needs equipment built for that space.
How often should high windows be cleaned?
Twice a year, with the rest of the windows: late spring after the tree pollen is done, and early fall before the weather turns. High glass that nobody can reach between visits is the glass that goes years without a cleaning, so it belongs on the list every time the rest of the house gets done.
Get a quote
Send your address through Get a Free Quote and tell us about the tall glass, inside and out. We'll count the arched and divided windows in the quote, so the visit is planned around them.
