Table of Contents
The short answer
A cleaning team that arrives with a step ladder can clean the inside of every window in a home, the balcony glass and the outside of the balcony doors, the outside of ground-floor glass, the lower part of an exterior wall, and a chandelier that hangs at ordinary ceiling height. It cannot clean the outside of a tower, upper-floor glass with nothing to stand on beside it, a tall facade, or a chandelier in a double-height hall. Those need rope access, a cradle, a platform or scaffolding, and that is a different trade.
That is the published position at IHR Dream Cleaning, and it runs through the whole specialist cleaning group: windows, facades, pressure washing and chandeliers. The materials our teams carry include a step ladder. Tall ladders and scaffolding are not part of them. High-rise exterior glass, and anything that would need rope access, must be confirmed separately before a booking, and a position that cannot be reached safely is declined, not attempted.
The sections below show where the line falls in an apartment, in a villa, on a wall and under a chandelier, so that you can tell before you book which parts of your home are in and which need someone else.
Where the line is, and why it sits there
The test is the equipment, not a number. We do not publish a height in metres. What is published is that a step ladder is part of the kit and anything taller is not. A step ladder stands on its own four feet, the person on it works with their weight between the legs of the ladder, and the height stays modest.
Everything beyond that changes the nature of the job. A leaning ladder depends on what it leans against and on the ground at its foot. Scaffolding has to be built and checked. A cradle belongs to the building and runs from its roof. Rope access is done by technicians trained for it, with anchor points and a back-up line. None of that can be improvised by a house-cleaning team on the day, and a careful company does not try.
Our terms say the same thing from the other side. The safety of the team comes first, and the team may decline a task that poses an unreasonable risk, such as cleaning exterior windows at height without proper equipment. If part of a booking turns out to be out of reach, that part is left undone and the booked hours go on the rest of the home.
A test you can apply yourself
Stand where the cleaner would stand and ask three questions. If any answer is no, that piece of the job has to be described and confirmed before the visit, or handed to a specialist.
- Can the person stand on the floor, the ground, a balcony floor, or a step ladder on a firm and level surface?
- Can they reach the glass or the fitting without leaning their body past a sill, a rail or the side of the ladder?
- Is there nothing beside them that turns a slip into a long fall, such as a stairwell, an open void or the edge of a balcony?
An apartment in a tower: what can be done from inside
This is the question behind most searches for high-rise window cleaning from inside. The inside faces are all yours to have cleaned. The outside depends on how each window opens and on whether there is a balcony. Towers on Al Reem Island and along the Corniche are typical: floor-to-ceiling glass, a balcony facing the water or the city, and a visitor desk downstairs.
| Type of glass | Inside face | Outside face |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed floor-to-ceiling pane | Yes | No. It is part of the building's facade |
| Sliding balcony door | Yes | Yes, from the balcony floor |
| Glass balustrade on a balcony | Yes, the face towards the flat | Only what can be reached without leaning over the rail |
| Window whose sash turns or tilts fully into the room | Yes | Yes, once the sash is swung inside |
| Sliding or vented window with no balcony | Yes | No, beyond the strip an arm reaches without leaning out |
Balconies
A balcony is a safe place to stand, so everything that can be reached from its floor is in: both faces of the sliding doors, the frames and tracks, the floor, the rail, and the inner face of a glass balustrade. The outer face of the balustrade is the difficult part. If the panel is low enough to reach over comfortably with a pad on a short handle, it can be wiped. If reaching it means leaning the upper body over the rail, it is left.
Nobody should stand on a chair, a stool or a step ladder on a balcony to reach higher. The rail is built to stop a person who is standing on the floor. Raise the person and it no longer does. The floor, the tracks and the drain are a job of their own, covered in how to clean an apartment balcony, and balconies that face the sea collect a salt film on top of the dust, which is explained in why sea-facing glass gets dirty so fast.
Windows with no balcony
Many tower windows are fixed panes with a small opening vent, and the vent is often fitted with a restrictor that stops it opening more than a little. The restrictor is a safety device. It should not be released or removed to get an arm outside, by a cleaner or by you.
A window whose sash turns or tilts fully into the room is the exception. Its outside face comes inside, where it is cleaned like any other glass. Tell us when you book if yours do this, because it adds glass to the visit.
Double-sided magnetic cleaners
These are sold for exactly this problem: two pads held together through the glass by magnets, so that moving the inside pad drags the outside one. Each is made for a particular glass thickness, and the double glazing in a tower is often thicker than the lighter ones are built for. Grit caught under the outer pad scratches the glass as it travels. And if the outer half lets go, it falls. On an upper floor that is a risk to whoever is below, so ask the building's management before using one, and keep its safety cord attached.
Who cleans the outside of a tower
The building does. The exterior glass of a tower is cleaned for the whole building by a facade contractor, working from a cradle hung from the roof or by rope access. It is arranged by the building's management, not flat by flat.
If your outside glass is dirty, ask the management office when the next round is due and whether your side of the tower is in it. If a round has just been done and your panes were missed or left streaked, report it to them straight away, while the contractor is still on site.
A villa: ground floor, balconies and the glass above
On a villa more of the outside is reachable, because more of it has ground or a terrace beneath it. A window cleaning visit covers the inside of the glass throughout, and the outside on the ground floor, from balconies and terraces, and wherever a step ladder on firm ground reaches. What is left over on most two-storey villas is a short list.
- Upper-floor windows with no balcony or terrace outside them.
- The tall glazed panel above a front door, and stairwell windows that run through two floors. These are out of reach from the outside and, above the lower panes, from the inside as well.
- Rooflights, and glazed roofs over a courtyard or a terrace.
- Glass above a pool, a planted bed or sloping ground, where a ladder has no firm and level place to stand.
What happens to that glass
None of it is part of a standard window-cleaning visit. Describe it when you book and send a photo taken from outside. We tell you before the day what can be taken on and what cannot. Anything that would need a tall ladder, a platform or rope access is work for a specialist access company, and we say so plainly.
Staircases
Stairs deserve a mention of their own. A step ladder needs all four feet on one level, and a staircase does not offer that. High glass, light fittings and ledges over a stair are out of reach for that reason, even when the same height in a flat-floored room would be easy.
Walls and facades: ground level and low height
Facade cleaning follows the same rule as glass. It covers the exterior walls of villas and low-rise buildings where the work can be done safely at ground level or low height: ground-floor walls, the entrance and its surround, the lower floors of a low-rise building. High-rise and rope-access work is not included, and a section that cannot be reached safely is left out by default.
Walls differ from glass in one way that matters. A wall cleaned up to a line shows the line. A facade that is washed as high as a team can reach and left dirty above it can end up with a tide mark where the work stopped. On a single-storey wing, an entrance or a low boundary-side wall this does not arise. On a tall, plain, two-storey elevation it can. Ask about it when the wall is assessed. If the whole height matters, the whole wall is a job for a company with access equipment.
For a larger facade, a site visit confirms the surface, its condition and a realistic scope before a price is given. Send photos that show the height and the finish of each wall and where equipment can stand. Which job a tired exterior needs in the first place is compared in facade cleaning, pressure washing or repainting.
Pressure washing and height
Pressure washing is ground work by nature: driveways, parking areas, paths and paved terraces. The only height question is a simple one. A pressure lance pushes back when the trigger is pulled, which is one reason it is never used from a ladder.
Chandeliers and other high fittings indoors
Chandelier cleaning is slow, close work. The arms and fittings are dusted first, and then each crystal is cleaned on its own. The person doing it needs both hands free and a steady footing for an hour or more. That is why only fittings confirmed as safely accessible are taken on.
In practice a chandelier in a room with an ordinary ceiling, over a clear floor, is reachable. One over a dining table is reachable once the table has been moved. One in a double-height entrance hall, or hanging in a stairwell, is not reachable from a step ladder. Send the photo and the height all the same. Very high fittings are assessed separately, and you are told before booking what can be done. Some large fittings are installed on a winch that lowers them to working height. If yours has one, say so, because it changes the answer.
Before a chandelier visit we ask for a photo of each fitting, the ceiling height, the rough size, and whether any crystals or parts are already loose. Switch the fitting off beforehand and clear the furniture beneath it. How the cleaning itself is done, and when not to try it yourself, is in how to clean a crystal chandelier safely.
Other high places inside a home
The same test covers the less glamorous high spots. Ceiling fans, the tops of wardrobes and kitchen cabinets, curtain rails, high AC grilles and ordinary ceiling lights are within step-ladder reach in a room of normal height. In a double-height living room they are not, and the high-level windows and ledges of such a room collect dust that only someone with a platform or long-reach equipment can remove. Say when you book if any room is double height, so nobody plans a day around a ledge that cannot be reached.
At a glance: in reach, or someone else's job
The table puts the whole home in one place. 'Standard visit' means a team with the materials we publish, a step ladder included.
| Surface | Standard visit | Who does the rest |
|---|---|---|
| Inside of all windows and glass doors | Yes | Nothing left over |
| Balcony doors and balcony glass | Yes, from the balcony floor | Building's contractor for outer faces beyond reach |
| Exterior glass of a tower | No | Building management's facade contractor |
| Villa exterior glass, ground floor | Yes | Nothing left over |
| Villa exterior glass, upper floor | From a balcony or terrace only | Specialist access company |
| Exterior walls | Ground level and low height, after assessment | Specialist access company above that |
| Chandelier at ordinary ceiling height | Yes, once confirmed from photos | Nothing left over |
| Chandelier in a double-height space | Not from a step ladder; assessed from photos | A specialist with a platform, or the fitting's installer |
The shortcuts nobody should take
The risk in this kind of work is rarely the tall, obvious job. It is the last pane that is nearly within reach. These are the shortcuts a careful team refuses, and they are worth refusing yourself when you are tempted to finish the job after the cleaners have gone.
- Standing on a window sill, a kitchen counter, a radiator shelf or the arm of a sofa.
- Putting a chair on a table, or a ladder on anything other than the floor.
- Sitting on a sill with the legs inside and the body outside to wash the outer face.
- Using a step ladder on a balcony, beside an open window or next to a stairwell.
- Standing on the very top of a step ladder, or reaching so far sideways that the hips leave the line of the ladder.
- Leaning a ladder against glass, a gutter or a parapet.
- Releasing a window restrictor to get an arm or a head outside.
- Setting a ladder on wet tiles, loose gravel or a slope.
- Tying a cloth to a broom handle and swinging it at an outside pane. It moves the dirt about, and whatever comes loose lands on someone below.
If you clean high places yourself
Keep to the same line: a step ladder on a dry, level floor, with someone else in the room, and nothing that needs a hand off the ladder and a stretch at the same moment. Before touching a light fitting, switch it off and let the bulbs cool. For anything more than dusting, switch the circuit off at the breaker. If the job needs more than that, it is not a household job.
What to tell us and what to photograph
A booking goes wrong at height for one reason: the team arrives expecting one thing and finds another. Five minutes with a phone prevents it.
- Count the glass: windows, glass doors, balcony panels and mirrors. Say how each window opens.
- Photograph the outside of the home from far enough back to show the whole height of each side, with a door in the picture for scale.
- Photograph from inside any pane you are unsure about, with the window open as far as it goes.
- For a chandelier, send one photo of the whole fitting and one close-up, and measure from floor to ceiling in that room. If you cannot measure, say how many storeys the space rises through.
- For a wall, say what it is finished in (paint, stone or cladding) and what is at its foot: paving, planting, a pool or a slope.
- Mention anything already loose or damaged, such as a cracked pane, a loose crystal or flaking paint.
- In a tower, add the building's visitor rules. Registration, service lifts and parking are covered in booking a cleaner in an Abu Dhabi tower.
On the day
The team leader walks through the home with you on arrival and confirms what is in the visit. If something that looked reachable in the photos is not, this is when it is said, and the time goes to the rest of the list. Glass is checked against the light before the cleaner finishes, and the work is looked over before the team leaves. Move furniture and plants away from the windows beforehand, unlock the sliding doors and window handles, and mention any blinds or curtains that need moving.
Choosing a company for the high work
For a villa or a low-rise building, the high glass and the tall walls need a company whose trade is access: rope access, powered platforms or scaffold towers. Window-cleaning specialists also wash first-floor glass from the ground with long water-fed poles, which keeps their feet on the ground. These are the questions worth asking before one starts.
- Which method will be used on this building, and where will the equipment stand or be anchored?
- Is this activity on the company's trade licence, and can they show it? How to check a licence, and what else to ask any company that works in your home, is in how to choose a cleaning company in Abu Dhabi.
- Who is responsible if a pane, a tile or a plant is damaged, and is that in writing?
- Does the community or the building need to approve the work or the equipment beforehand? Some do for facade and rooftop work.
- What will the glass or the wall be cleaned with, and does it suit coated glass or that wall finish?
Getting both faces of the glass clean together
Inside-only cleaning still removes fingerprints, cooking film and the marks AC condensation leaves, which are what you notice at night with the lights on. Dust and salt on the outer face stay until the outside is done. If you want both faces clean at once, find out when the building's round or your access company's visit is due, and book the inside and the reachable outside for the days just after it.
What the reachable work costs
Window cleaning is priced by the hour, per cleaner, from the same list as home cleaning: AED 55 for 1 hour, AED 65 for 2 hours, AED 30 an hour for 3–4 hours and AED 25 for each hour after that. Our service page gives two to three hours for one cleaner as typical for the windows and balcony glass of a two-bedroom apartment. That is AED 65 to AED 90 with your own products, and AED 75 to AED 105 with ours. A villa with many windows is usually three to five hours with one or two cleaners, and two cleaners for three hours each are AED 180 without materials. All of these include VAT, and the whole list is on the pricing page.
The materials choice matters more for this job than for most. Without materials, the team brings nothing and uses what is in the home, so the step ladder, the squeegee and the clean cloths have to be yours. With materials, the step ladder comes with the team.
Facade cleaning and chandelier cleaning have no list price. A facade is quoted by its size, height and access, and a chandelier by its size, height and crystal count, from photos or a free inspection. The price is agreed before the visit, and you pay by card from My bookings on this website once it is confirmed.
Common questions
Can you clean the outside of my windows on a high floor?
Only the parts that can be reached from inside the flat or from the balcony floor. In practice that means the balcony doors, the balcony glass and any sash that opens into the room. Fixed panes on the outside of a tower are cleaned by the building's facade contractor.
Can the team bring a taller ladder if I ask?
Not as part of a standard visit. The materials our teams carry stop at a step ladder, and tall ladders and scaffolding are listed as not included. If a window or a fitting is above that, describe it when you book. It is confirmed one way or the other before the day, and never worked out on the doorstep.
I have my own tall ladder. Can the cleaners use it?
Do not plan the visit around it. The team may decline any task it judges unsafe, and a ladder it does not know, leaned against a wall it has not seen, is exactly what that clause is for. Describe the window instead, and we will tell you what can be done.
What happens if the team finds something it cannot reach on the day?
It is left, and you are told at the walk-through, not at the end. The hours you booked are used on the rest of the home. You pay for the hours booked, so the way to avoid disappointment is to mention high glass and high fittings when you book.
What is the height limit in metres?
We do not publish one. The published line is the equipment: a step ladder is part of the team's materials, and tall ladders and scaffolding are not. The same ceiling can be reachable over a clear, level floor and out of reach over a staircase, which is why a photo tells us more than a figure would.
Our living room has a double-height window. Can the lower half be done?
Yes. Everything within reach from the floor and a step ladder is cleaned, inside and, on the ground floor, outside. The upper part is left. A clean lower half makes a dusty upper half more obvious, so it is worth arranging the high part with an access company for the same week.
Do the same limits apply to shopfronts and office glass?
Yes. Shop and office glass is cleaned where it can be reached from the ground or from inside the premises. Signage, canopies and upper-floor glazing above a shopfront are access work.
Booking the part that can be done
Start with what is in reach. In most apartments that is every inside face and the balcony. In most villas it is the inside, the ground floor and the balconies. That is the glass a household looks through most.
The services in this guide are listed together in our specialist cleaning group. Window cleaning can be booked online by the hour, any day from 8 AM – 8 PM, with the price shown before you confirm and paid by card. For a facade or a chandelier, book the service, send the photos to info@ihrdreamcleaning.com, and we confirm what can be reached, and the price, before anyone comes.
